Thank you.
I was very interested in what you were saying about your concerns about the growing power of the PMO, because we've certainly seen the consolidation of power into the office. You spoke of the role that political staff have. I don't want to involve you in the minutiae of what happens at our committee, but we had a situation in which Dimitri Soudas, who is staff for the Prime Minister, set up a meeting with public servants over a real estate deal. When the public servants were here at the committee, they felt that this real estate deal was strictly a commercial issue, but the PM's office had said it was a political issue, and that's why they had asked a staffer, apparently, to intervene in this case. We never did get an answer from Mr. Soudas as to whether he was flying solo or whether he had the authority of the Prime Minister to call civil servants.
What recommendations would you bring forward to us in order to ensure that political staff are not interfering in areas they have no business interfering in, and that public servants are not feeling unduly intimidated by the staff who work for the Prime Minister?