Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I want to emphasize that the fact that changes to the Parliamentary Budget Office are included in a budget implementation act seems problematic to me, even if the word “budget” is used in both cases. These changes should have been presented in a separate bill.
Mr. Fréchette, Mr. Askari and Mr. Mahabir, thank you for being here with us today. If I may, I would like to continue in the same vein as my Conservative colleague.
I find it quite interesting that the Liberal government is asking you to study the costs of proposals made by political parties during electoral campaigns. I'm sure we all agree that this is starting to be a bit delicate. It may seem interesting to the public that we are asking political parties for accounts—the journalists will love it—but how are you going to be able to evaluate those proposals?
I am preaching for my own bailiwick here. We want to make changes to the voting system in order to move to a proportional system. How can you evaluate the cost of that proposal?