Foreign Affairs committee  That's a planning figure, sir, and that number may change. It's a small adjustment. We don't plan.... In our funding for those major fragile states—Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan—we plan to be pretty constant over the next little while.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My dealings with Kairos were on the proposal that they submitted to us and that was the--

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There was nothing in the analysis that I saw on the--

Procedure and House Affairs committee  --program proposal.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, a recommendation is a recommendation. It's advice coming from the department and it does not have any authority. The authority comes when the decision is made by the person who has the authority to make the decision.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There are some decisions the minister has delegated to the department. On these issues, no, the minister has the authority to make the decision.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, it was a memo with a recommendation to seek a decision.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm sorry, I can't.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The minister's decision, to me, was clear. I didn't focus on the document.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  When a decision is made by the minister, I am usually notified about it verbally, because I'm in communication with the minister and her chief of staff at all times. In this case, her decision was delivered to me verbally, so to be honest, I wasn't focusing on the document.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It is a practice for ministers to convey their decisions to the department, and they do use different means. You can write “do not agree”, strike it across, as you said, “no, do not agree”, initial it, and date it. It would not be, in my view, a good practice to just send a doc

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Chair, as I indicated earlier today, I am aware of other circumstances where Minister Oda's decision and direction to the department included the insertion of the words “not” or “do not”. That's a point of fact. On your second issue, it would be clearer and less confusing if the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I said that.