Government Operations committee  As you know, one of my recommendations was that people should be on it for a long time.

Government Operations committee  Yes, I'm happy to. My recollection is that the public accounts committee unanimously recommended to the government that deputy ministers should be accountable to the public accounts committee, and not as is the current practice, that they respond only in the name of their minister.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Poilievre, what happened in the real world is that I received a telephone call in the kitchen while I was preparing dinner, and it was from Kathryn May, who I have known now for several years because she's followed the affairs of the commission. I'm on a very friendly basis with her.

Government Operations committee  No, thank you; that's fine.

Government Operations committee  It's the subject of university courses.

Government Operations committee  You are asking me to remember something I cannot. I did not take notes. I can simply relay to you impressions drawn from my memory.

Government Operations committee  I clearly recollect — I went back home after that meeting — having told my wife that my impression was that Mr. Baird was very relieved to know that I would remain a judge for a long time and that I would not be making political comments about the future of the recommendations contained in my report.

Government Operations committee  Obviously, had I not been obliged to stay silent with regard to my recommendations, I would have accepted the thousand and one requests I got for television interviews, for example. After tabling my report, I was sought out by journalists and all sorts of people to comment on the Federal Accountability Act.

Government Operations committee  Today, I am much freer, and this is why I am here.

Government Operations committee  I know what's truly important.

Government Operations committee  Well, I'm not going to pretend that my report was perfect or that it was carved in stone, or should be carved in stone. Obviously, everything I've ever done could have been done better, I guess. When we were discussing my report with my advisory committee, we talked about various possibilities.

Government Operations committee  I think all political parties were falling all over each other to work on accountability issues as a result of my first report.

Government Operations committee  That's correct.

Government Operations committee  I think it's a key problem, and it's hard to figure out the remedy. The last information I had, about 100 staff in the Prime Minister's Office were exempt. And if you go back to the days of Diefenbaker and Pearson, I doubt they had more than 10 or 12 political staff in their offices.

Government Operations committee  Well—