Mr. Speaker, as the member is very much aware, I have been talking a lot about the standing committees and the important role they play in Parliament. There have been over 20 standing committees for years, and I believe the Prime Minister has been very consistent over those years.
We have a lot of faith in those committees. In a minority situation, opposition parties have that much more control over standing committees. There is nothing within this proposal from the Conservative Party that could not be done by the foreign affairs committee, for example, if it wanted to deal with it.
Having confidence in our standing committees is important and sets the tone going forward. Would my colleague not agree that it is important that we send a strong message to our standing committees that if there are issues they believe are important for debate, dialogue and study, we have trust in them as committees, and that includes identifying their own witnesses?
This is something that the member's own colleague pointed out in item (k), where this House is trying to dictate to a special or standing committee who the witnesses should be. We believe we should have confidence that the special committees and standing committees are able to determine who their witnesses should be. Would the hon. member not agree with that?