First of all, we must recognize that access to information is limited, that there are some things that aren't in it, that the Federal Accountability Act itself says that draft internal audits should be concealed for a period of years, should not be available I think it's 15 years--I'm not certain on that.
But one thing that is confidential at present, and I think always would be, is the advice of deputy ministers to ministers. There was no intention in anything Gomery did and there's no intention, as far as I can see, in the Federal Accountability Act to change that. The advice a deputy minister gives to a minister on policy or anything else is confidential, and then the minister's informal comments to the deputy minister are also confidential.
In a parliamentary committee, deputy ministers and other public servants at present can only answer about what a policy is. They do not say it is a good policy or a bad policy, they do not discuss alternative policies, and they do not say what they would prefer in policy. There's nothing that will change that. So the confidentiality of the relationship between minister and deputy minister would remain.
The issue would be only if there is something on which the minister and the deputy minister disagree that is within the responsibilities of the deputy minister that the process for appealing to the Treasury Board and the Secretary of the Treasury Board would be invoked--not on policy issues, just on administrative matters that are the responsibility of the deputy minister, the accounting officer.