The special committee convened a further public meeting on the afternoon of July 22, 2001 to consider the request to withdraw the application, to assess its options and finalize its report to the House. Counsel was not present for the Minister or Conflict of Interest Commissioner. The further lengthy submissions from counsel for the Conflict of Interest Commissioner were not considered, as the submissions went primarily to the merits of the bias issue.
The special committee considered three possible options respecting recommendations that could be made to the Legislative Assembly:
- That the matter is considered concluded on the basis of the request to withdraw the application, and that no further action by the special committee is mandated;
- That the matter goes forward irrespective of the Minister's request to withdraw the application;
- That the committee be reconstituted to look at related issues of conduct of Members and statutory officers of the House and others.
During the course of the meeting, the Minister requested an opportunity to clarify a matter. As the comments made by the Minister were not clarification but essentially a submission on what should be done with the investigation report, the special committee did not take those remarks into consideration.