I think it's a key problem, and it's hard to figure out the remedy. The last information I had, about 100 staff in the Prime Minister's Office were exempt. And if you go back to the days of Diefenbaker and Pearson, I doubt they had more than 10 or 12 political staff in their offices. So this has been a huge growth. I think it deserves attention, because as I've already said, these are unregulated personnel, and they aren't accountable to anybody except to the person who is the head of their office, the chief of staff, who is himself unelected.
I chose to deal with that by making certain recommendations that would have the effect of increasing the visibility and functions of individual members of Parliament, and I think this committee is a good example of the kind of check that can occur on the powers of the Prime Minister's Office. So I applaud the hearings taking place today, and I applaud similar committees, such as the public accounts committee, which deals with financial matters, and other committees.
I think this permits individual members of Parliament to hold the government to account. The traditional role of Parliament is to hold the government to account. I'm not so clear on restricting or checking the expansion of this exempt staff, except I think some rules should apply to these people. I've heard there are some training sessions. I'm delighted to hear that. I'm not so sure what training they're receiving, but in any event I think that's a positive step.