Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the minister for being here today.
I understand her point about access to information. It's one of those things that is, sadly, not followed up by the government, I can say that. Having been on the committee for the Accountability Act, I remember well, during those debates, that we were hoping to have reform to access to information, and the promise from the government was, well, we'll get there. But if we were to have that discussion, I would submit we're not there yet, and in fact the report card by the commissioner says that, and we're sitting on a committee where we're not even able to grade the access to information because it's a red alert. Alas, we're not going to have that conversation today because we're here to talk about the distribution of information to media upon request.
I just want to clarify your comments. Basically, if I can paraphrase your statement, you laid out what your responsibilities are as the department's minister, getting the message out to Canadians about your programs that you have been mandated to follow through the budget process, etc., and the fact of the matter is that you followed the rules that you've been given, and your staff, Mr. Sparrow, did the same. The qualifier was when the ask was put in, you didn't have all the relevant, cogent information, and when you did, you supplied that information. Is that correct?