Senator Downe: Obviously, the policy has changed. Years ago, when I was on CIBA, the position was quite clear. Senators participated, and, as you stated, there are always reasons some people can’t go. There was never a full allocation. However, I can’t understand how the committee can write the report when some of the committee members participated in all the meetings, and others did not. Notwithstanding they may read the transcript or look at it on Zoom, there are nuances that are missed. How do you intend to square that when you write your final report?

Senator Boehm: Well, thank you Senator Downe. This study has been going on for some time — since April of last year. In my view, all committee members have had a pretty good exposure to various witnesses. I don’t have the data in front of me in terms of how many witnesses we have seen and heard, but I do think that writing the report with all the data and information we have received will not be that onerous and that senators will be prepared.

Also, on the trip that I had mentioned, we are not looking at substitute senators either. So everyone has been exposed to this one way or the other.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): As I have answered to you, honourable colleague, previously, the meetings took place in the Langevin Block, not in the Prime Minister’s Office. Let’s be clear because — it’s the office building in which the Prime Minister’s — the meetings were with public officials. There was no evidence in the Prime Minister’s itinerary that there was such a meeting. The Prime Minister has said that he was not aware of such a meeting, and others who have attended such meetings in Langevin have also testified to the fact, or spoken publicly to the fact, that it is not necessarily the case at all that the Prime Minister would be aware of every meeting that takes place in that building.