If we are to be entrusting a minister with the secrets of the state and the management of a portfolio and have him as a privy councillor, then on a rare occasion he may have to have access to the identity of a specific requester--not for the purpose of entering into a scrum, not in question period, and not before the press, but for reasons of state. So the door is cracked open, and I say the minister because the authority in the first instance flows from him--all of it.
On October 16th, 2006. See this statement in context.