Thank you, Mr. Chair and esteemed members of the committee.

Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today.

As the chair indicated, my name is Michel Bédard, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel at the House of Commons.

I understand that, as part of its study on the Auditor General's Report on Sustainable Development Technology Canada, the committee has some questions in relation to the order for the production of documents adopted by the House on June 10, 2024.

As members know, the order requires that the government, SDTC and the Auditor General deposit documents regarding SDTC with me, as Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel. I am then to notify the Speaker as to whether the documents were provided as ordered. The Speaker must, in turn, inform the House accordingly.

To date, I have provided the Speaker with four reports. I provided them on July 17, August 21 and September 16, and I provided the fourth report just this morning. These reports were all tabled in the House of Commons and are publicly available as sessional papers.

I note that some government institutions informed me that they still have documents to submit. The Auditor General also indicated that she may have more documents to provide later.

As stated in my reports to the Speaker, some documents I received were redacted while others were withheld. The order of June 10 also requires that the documents I receive be provided to the RCMP. On that, my office provided documents to the RCMP on August 16, 2024.

My role under the order is limited to receiving the documents, notifying the Speaker and providing the documents to the RCMP. The order does not contemplate any assessment or analysis of the documents.

As members are aware, a question of privilege was raised in the House of Commons on September 16 regarding compliance with the order. On September 26, the Speaker ruled that the matter constituted a prima facie case of privilege. The House leader of the official opposition, Mr. Scheer, then moved that the matter be referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. This motion is still being debated in the House of Commons.

This concludes my remarks.

I will be pleased to answer your questions to the extent I can under the order of June 10 and taking into consideration that the House is still currently debating this matter as a question of privilege on whether the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs should be seized by the matter.

Thank you.