Thank you, Madame Chair.
Thank you for coming this morning on such short notice. I think all of us are working almost from the same page at this time, because we were not expecting your presence and it is a complicated file.
At our last meeting we passed a motion calling upon the government to act upon its commitment to institute the public appointments commission. The public appointments commission was meant to be a patronage watchdog that was accountable to Parliament. It was an independent agency that actually had teeth, that had a budget. It's very different from the role of a secretariat, and that's been pointed out a number of times.
There was a March 7 Canwest article that said the public appointments commission has been undermined by the fact that we've created something sounding very similar, a secretariat, but a secretariat works through the PCO and reports to the PM.
If a commission is to be set up, will that money be transferred to the commission? What is the role the secretariat will continue to play when we're looking to have an independent commission set up?