On the parliamentary secretary's points, this is not about taking action--we want to see action on this issue--but this is about the relevance of Parliament and committees. Somebody has to speak up some time--and we are--about this Prime Minister's attitude toward parliamentary democracy. That's what we're saying.
The Prime Minister didn't mention the work of this committee. Then he turned around and basically said “CFIA and the Minister of Agriculture will do the work, so we don't need to worry about the efforts of the committee and meet with the very same witnesses”. If I were a witness I'd ask why I bothered meeting with the standing committee.
This is not unusual coming from this Prime Minister, Parliamentary Secretary. We're seeing abuse of the relevance of Parliament with this issue. We see it on other committees, where government members are filibustering their work because the Prime Minister's Office doesn't agree with this or that. We've certainly seen it on the Wheat Board and other issues, where democracy and the rule of law have basically been supplanted by the attitude of the government itself.
It's not new, but it's not about action. It's about the relevance of Parliament and our work. I just want to make that point clear.