Government Operations committee  It would be particularly so if you remain on the committee and don't get sent off to other committees because the other thing, of course, is that frankly we don't have enough members of Parliament to staff or to be participating in all of the committees. There are a number of you

Government Operations committee  And the additional advantage is that you would become friends. In other words, even though you have different political perceptions, you can still respect each other and learn from each other. That's what I think is important, to be here for a long period of time.

Government Operations committee  Not anymore than I've already suggested....

Government Operations committee  What we're looking for is your report, having a good report.

Government Operations committee  I certainly think so. One of the things I'm terribly conscious of as an outsider is the enormous pressure that each of you as members of Parliament are exposed to. I can remember in 1980 when, for the first time, constituency offices were funded. Up till then members weren't spen

Government Operations committee  I would say a few hours isn't going to make much difference. What I really think is important is to get yourselves the kind of support that the Parliamentary Budget Officer can give and to give that person some direction to prepare material so then in a short period of time, you

Government Operations committee  I don't think so.

Government Operations committee  You've already had Bob Marleau's pretty effective rebuttal of that view so I'm not going to try to improve on what he said. One of the things that one observes, though, about the Canadian Parliament is that there's an enormous turnover, and that's also been said by other people

Government Operations committee  It's not an easy question, but one has to recognize that the government is basically satisfied with what it's doing. It thinks it's doing the right things. If all the members of a committee that's looking at a specific program, let's say, come to the conclusion that maybe some

Government Operations committee  —and two and three.

Government Operations committee  The only thing I'd add is that Martin has pointed to the fact that opposition members take one position, government members take another position, but the important thing is that, privately, a number of the government members may think that isn't exactly the way they would like i

Government Operations committee  Good afternoon, to all of you. You've invited the two of us to comment on two papers we have jointly written, a large part of them by Martin. I should let you know in advance that I got him started. The two of us have very different backgrounds as your chairman has just pointed