Mr. Speaker, this debate is moving in the direction that we would want it to, and I appreciate the members across the way for doing that. We just heard the previous speaker talk about how happy he is to hear our priorities coming to the House and how supportive he would be of those. He said that the orientation to the department should focus rather on the people, so we are moving along.
At the outset of his speech, the member said that “governing is about priorities and choices” and that it can put whatever it chooses before us, which would be a budget and consolidated audited financial statements on past expenditures. Further we have a process of scrutiny from the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
In this case when we are talking about governance, I know the member wants to focus on one particular witness, but we heard from several first nations people, as private members' business and now as it is government legislation. These constituents from whom we heard had experienced intimidation and found it very problematic and almost impossible to get access to information on what the chief and council was spending. Why is that important? Because it helps them to govern. It helps them to make choices as a community.
I ask that the member reconcile that principle with what he said in his speech. It does not make any sense.