Mr. Chair, I just want to ask officials a question.
Obviously, we've established that there's a mandate and there should be a work plan, and there are obviously issues where people say that they think the mandate should be x versus y. It's the same with the work plan. The word “shall”, to me, “shall, if requested to do so by any member of the Senate or the House of Commons or by any of the following”, sounds as if I asked for a report to be done on something, then “shall” would mean that the PBO would have to do it. Again, I'm just thinking that if I would do that responsibly, I'm sure that might be okay, but if you have 338 members, and some members are much more ambitious than others, that might start to tap out the resources. I think that's one of the reasons you have it written right now that it's done by the request of committees.
If a request from the good members from la belle province is made, what ramifications would that have from your perspective on the PBO's ability to carry out his work from a more macro level? How would that be compromised or changed?