It's a huge multi-decadal question, Ms. May, as you know. It's complicated and it goes in both directions.
One of the benefits of having the commissioner's office in the Office of the Auditor General is that it's well resourced and it has a lot of bench strength. It does not engage in policy debate, so it is able to build and maintain credibility on that front. That has also insulated the commissioner's office from the political wind. For example, with the cuts under the Harper administration years ago, the NRT was cut but the commissioner's office was not cut, although perhaps some resources were reduced.
Those are all benefits of the existing model. If that mandate is cracked open and amended in a significant way, some of those benefits may be eroded or taken away.
You really have two options. One is, as you said, to expand the office and make it a completely independent agency or office of Parliament. The other is to create a new separate institution that is in the likeness of what you've all been discussing, so NRT 2.0, if you will, a National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy 2.0.