Thank you very much.
Welcome to the committee, Ms. Ouimet. We have met on several occasions. Perhaps you do not remember. I was the immigration critic and I also worked at the Department of Immigration. In addition, I believe you crossed paths with members of my family in the scientists’ group at Agriculture Canada. I am pleased to have you here today.
I have some questions I would like to ask but I am not sure that you will be able to answer them. From the outset, we have tried to understand in which specific cases you have intervened to date. There seems to be a certain malaise. For almost one year we have been receiving many complaints. Public servants come to see us because they are very uneasy with the directives issued by the departments regarding communications with elected officials.
For example, when an organization’s representative comes to see us because he has not received the answer to a question or he does not know what has happened with his file, we call Service Canada and yet the information officers cannot provide us with the information even though we have a letter from the organization asking us to intervene. For some unknown reason the information that we provided to Service Canada finds its way to staff of the political candidates. Public servants are ill at ease and still do not know whether they can communicate in confidence with the people from your office. They also wonder whether or not your office can intervene in these situations.
There also seems to be a problem with respect to scientists. People from Agriculture Canada, a department where you worked, and from Statistics Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs have raised the issue. Can you provide some details about this?