Yes, of course.
In light of the article that appeared in The Globe and Mail on Monday morning, it seems quite obvious to the people following the ArriveCAN file that the newspaper received copies of the documents sent to the committee on April 15. To be clear, these documents contained written answers to questions put to witnesses by MPs during public meetings. Those responses were provided to a journalist. Consequently, the information in these documents became public without the committee's consent, which I find unfortunate. I'd like to correct this mistake on behalf of the committee by making these documents public for a number of reasons. I'm talking about the documents from April 15 only.
First, this article was published in English. I believe that journalists representing the francophone media should also have access to the Treasury Board documents translated for the committee. That would be normal.
Second, this is about fairness to the media, the fourth estate of a healthy democracy. When documents are shared with a newspaper, the least we can do is to make them public, so that there's some transparency in this democracy.
I'd like the committee's opinion on this matter. It's important to right this wrong. I suggest that these documents be simply published on the committee's web site. Again, I'm speaking specifically about the April 15 documents sent to us and made available to the committee members. This is the Treasury Board document on conflicts of interest, as well as the amounts allocated to Dalian, Coradix and GC Strategies over at least 15 years. This includes years spanning two successive governments. I'd like those two documents made public, now that the most of the information has been disclosed to a single journalist.