I hope what I say isn't going to make you too mad at me. I think, within the Westminster model, it's the government that governs. Parliament's role is to scrutinize and debate and hold accountable. So the way you would empower Parliament is to enable it to become more persuasive in the work it does and in the recommendations it makes to government.
The point has been made by other witnesses that there is nothing to stop committees from undertaking to study a program, for example, outside the constraints of the estimates process and to take as long as needed. Presumably, they could come up with recommendations that might be programmatic but might also have to do with spending on the program. If they are really strong recommendations, the optimistic hope always is that the rest of the world will pay enough attention, and the government, for its own reasons, will take these things seriously.
It's an influence role. I wouldn't call it empowerment. That's sort of beyond that. If you do that kind of work well, that influence can, and has in certain cases in the past, with some committees, become quite definite. That would be the one thing, it seems to me. I think it's a question of recognizing that you have to persuade the government to do things and take it from there.