Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much, Mr. Fréchette, for talking to my colleague Mr. Caron about the independence of the PBO. I have a great interest in it. I know that one of the things being looked at was how to extract you from the Library of Parliament so that you could be set up on your own. I hope we hear more about that.
On that topic of impartiality, obviously, there are concerns with respect to making sure you retain your independence, but your mandate is pretty clear, I would submit. If a member of Parliament or a senator asks you a question, there's very little room for you to say no, to say that you won't study the matter, so long as it does apply to a financial cost of any proposal for matters over which Parliament has jurisdiction. It's a pretty broad mandate.
Would you comment on whether or not you're actually allowed to tell members that you won't study a matter if that test is met? Also, has that ever happened before, and has the parliamentarian appealed?