It depends on the source of the inquiry. It could be from this committee or from other parliamentarians. We might ask the Department of Finance for information we need for economic and fiscal forecasting purposes. To get a better understanding of the implementation of the budget vis-à-vis infrastructure, our request would go directly to the deputy minister at Transport and Infrastructure.
The Parliament of Canada Act says that the Parliamentary Budget Officer must make the request to the relevant deputy minister of the department from which the budget officer seeks the information. In some cases, that information is going to be in a line department. In other cases, the information may exist within the central agencies—Treasury Board, Finance, PCO. We would direct requests to departments according to the nature of the inquiry.