Well, on your first point about the watchdog function, that is one function. If we look at these types of offices around the world, they all have that sort of function in some way where they do try to hold the government to account in some way for its past practice.
The way it's been done in this model is through performance audits of existing policies. They're planned out well in advance, and a rigorous process is applied over a year to bring them to fruition. So there's a certain amount of that done in the performance audits and even on an annual, ongoing basis on the sustainable development strategies.
With respect to the autonomy of the commissioner within the Office of the Auditor General, it's important to remember that in practice those reports coming to you are coming to you from the Auditor General. Therefore, the Auditor General's office has a great deal of concern--this balancing act that Mr. Desautels was talking about.
The reality is that on personnel decisions, on the scoping of audits, what will be done, what topics will be audited in terms of actually reporting, whenever the commissioner writes a report it's sent to the editorial staff, the communications people of the Office of the Auditor General to be vetted and reviewed. That makes sense if you're the Auditor General, because you have to be able to defend these documents when they go forward in your name.
So the autonomy of the commissioner within the office is one that is not great. It has evolved over time, but it's one that is not great.
In terms of sustainable development, these sorts of commissioner-type functions that I was talking about, looking forward, looking at other examples around the world, some of them have ombudsman-type functions that deal with public complaints, some of them review and evaluate policy--holding the watchdog role, if you will--while others do investigate sustainable development issues, like in transportation or fisheries. Some of them do anticipatory research to get ahead of the policy debates; others hold public consultations. In the U.K. they educate public officials. They can recommend government action, and some of them audit government programs. So there's a wide range of activities that these types of offices can undertake if they're autonomous.
Within the current construct, of course, working as an officer, an employee, of the Auditor General, there's a much narrower focus because of the legitimate constraints of the Auditor General.