Mr. Speaker, I absolutely believe in the principle of responsible government. I should give a plug to one of our provincial forefathers, Joseph Howe, who was responsible for advancing the notion of responsible government in Canada, right here in my home province of Nova Scotia.
One of the issues the member raised though, and I think maybe we will find common ground here, is that some of the members he spoke of are not staff of the Prime Minister's Office. They are staff of individual ministers. The concept of ministerial responsibility is an important one.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper said, “our precedents and practices are very clear. It is ministers and the ministry at large who are responsible to the House and to its committees, not their staff members. The staff members are responsible to the ministers and the members for whom they work.”
I take exception to his suggestion that only the Prime Minister could alleviate the need for staff to testify. The relevant minister in each circumstance would do the trick just fine.