On your question, I would say that members of this committee are best placed to judge the level of involvement the government wants to have in matters of protocol and how aggressive...or how much promotion occurs.
We do take our mandate seriously, and with the tools we have, as I said, we do disseminate a lot of information.
I think there's a distinction to be made, and I'm not against a manual of sorts. We do have our various manuals, as I say, because we wouldn't be able to accomplish our work. I think it's important to understand that we are responsible for national protocol of national events.
If you're talking about a state funeral, nobody is going to be doing that except us. A royal visit? Nobody will be doing that except the department.
Those are clearly national protocol elements. When you get into the flag or local ceremonies then it's a different story. That's where the provincial, municipal, or an organization's internal protocol—such as the RCMP, or police forces—each has their own traditions. We cannot impose that on people.