Madam Chair, I may end up splitting time with my colleague just because my questions are fairly short, I think.
Ms. Meredith, I'm a little concerned about a disconnect that we're hearing. We're being told that next year we're going to have across-the-board departmental freezes. Last week we had representation from Treasury Board. When we asked about details, we were told, “Well, we haven't had any direction.” It is a bit troubling when a government announces a significant thing like across-the-board departmental freezes, and then there's no direction.
Can I rather bluntly ask you if you were consulted before the announcement was made that there would be significant freezes across all departments?