Merci beaucoup.
It's been a while since we've had some witnesses from the department here. I'll quote from chapter 20 of O'Brien and Bosc, page 1068, as follows:
Particular attention is paid to the questioning of public servants. The obligation of a witness to answer all questions put by the committee must be balanced against the role that public servants play in providing confidential advice to their Ministers. The role of the public servant has traditionally been viewed in relation to the implementation and administration of government policy, rather than the determination of what that policy should be. Consequently, public servants have been excused from commenting on the policy decisions made by the government. In addition, committees ordinarily accept the reasons that a public servant gives for declining to answer a specific question or series of questions which involve the giving of a legal opinion, which may be perceived as a conflict with the witness’ responsibility to the Minister....
So I do excuse Madam Roussel from answering those questions put by Mr. Bigras. I just want to remind everyone that there is a responsibility that public servants do have.
With that, we're going to move on to Ms. Duncan.