Madam Speaker, there is the nature of some of the justice committee meetings happening in camera, for instance. As everyone here knows, but maybe people at home do not know, it means that it is not public. It is not televised. There is no public written record of what is discussed. If these important questions are going to be dealt with at the justice committee, for instance, in camera, that is not enough.
A public inquiry would happen in public. If the terms of reference were right and we got to the point where the government felt sufficient pressure to launch a public inquiry, the devil would be in the details of its mandate.
I think what we are seeing now is a story that involves the firing of a minister from one particular position, the resignation of that minister subsequently, the resignation of the Prime Minister's principal secretary and a number of different charges against SNC-Lavalin. There is the charge of interference in public prosecutions, but there was also the guilty plea a few weeks ago for SNC-Lavalin illegally funnelling money to the governing party, over six figures' worth. There is a big and developing story here.
I think the idea that the Ethics Commissioner's investigation, with a limited scope under his mandate, is going to be able to accomplish everything Canadians would like to see answers to is just not realistic. What is the mechanism or what is the body or what is the tool that is going to be able to achieve that? Only a public inquiry with satisfactory terms of reference will accomplish that. That is why it is important that this motion pass today and that the government respect the motion once passed.