Thank you, Madam Chair.
First of all, I want to begin by congratulating Mr. Page on his new position. I also want to thank the Library of Parliament for the wonderful work they do for us as parliamentarians. I think it would be unanimously agreed that we certainly could not carry out our functions as parliamentarians if it weren't for the Library of Parliament, so we thank them for all the work they do on behalf of the Parliament of Canada.
Mr. Page, I've listened to your comments and I think there still needs to be some further clarification that perhaps you can provide. You can help me to understand, first of all, the difference between the function of your office and that of the Congressional Budget Office, because I think it's modelled a little bit after that. That is very important.
The other thing, too, that you had spoken about at great length is the whole idea of independent opinion. I'm still trying to figure out how you're going to arrive at that. It's very important for this committee. Your position could be extremely valuable to all of us here, because we deal with the estimates on this committee. That independent opinion is extremely important to us--as parliamentarians, of course, but more specifically at this committee.
How do you arrive at that independent opinion in the forecasting if there is concern as to whether your particular office is totally independent when it comes to financial resources? I think resources are extremely important.
Also, we have a concern as to how you're going to arrive at that opinion. If it's simply to be a collection of opinions, then it presents a bit of a problem. I think we would like to have a more frank opinion, an assessment of where things are.
Finally, you talked about the establishment of protocols and service standards. When are you going to have this dialogue with...? First of all, when will we be seeing these protocols and service standards in place? What will be the interaction you'll have with parliamentarians, and when will you begin that interaction?
These are my questions. I throw them all out to you at once, then you can take your time to answer them.