Mr. Speaker, I was not inviting you to come to my cottage. It sounded very bad. It would be very inappropriate, because you would have to go to the cottage of every member. It would not work.
I join the opposition House leader in recognizing the staff who work so hard here to help us with so many important tasks, starting of course with the Acting Clerk, Mr. Bosc, and his colleagues at the table. Right through the administration of the House of Commons, in every branch and every service, we are served by a remarkable group of women and men. The pages are getting the experience of their first parliamentary session. They missed a good chunk of the fall because of the election, but we look forward to seeing them in the new year.
A final word: it is not a secret that the chief financial officer of the House of Commons, Mr. Mark Watters, a CA, is leaving after many years of distinguished service, both in the House and with the Office of the Auditor General in a number of senior public administration functions. He has certainly been, for me, a very valuable ally. He has served all members of Parliament in an extraordinary way, and I know that all of us wish him much success and happiness in a new stage of what I hope will be a continued career of serving Canadians.