Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Minister, to the ethics committee.
This is, of course, our second day together in a row. Yesterday, in the government operations committee, I expressed my disappointment in your handling of the public purse—the $40-billion deficit and the $500 million. It was indicated that you would make the commitment to try to find out how the majority of those funds are from lapsed funds and reserves, not new amounts of savings.
Of course, you put out the second edition of the managerial guidelines yesterday, since clearly the managerial guidelines of October were not effective in the six-month period. We didn't even have an opportunity to touch on your role in the oversight of the privacy of information. There was so much to cover yesterday. Frankly, I shudder at the thought of having to take over your role, if necessary, because of the incredible amount of work to do.
Let's talk about PIA compliance today, privacy impacts assessments.
When the news broke about the lack of privacy impact assessment compliance across 13 different federal departments and agencies, you stated that each federal institute—as you did today—is responsible for enforcing the laws and policies. I feel this ignores the responsibility of the Treasury Board to provide oversight and ensure departments are enforcing these policies.
After more time for reflection, and I was previously making this point, would you not agree that it's a responsibility of the President of the Treasury Board to ensure that federal departments and agencies are protecting the privacy of your primary constituents, the public service?