Thank you for the question. I could perhaps begin by explaining the roles and responsibilities of departments and deputy ministers and the role and responsibility of the Privy Council Office regarding communications.
Obviously, and it's the same with policy, ministers, departments and deputy ministers are responsible for their own programs. The minister responsible for infrastructure is the minister responsible for the program and the minister responsible for developing all communications , that is, preparing press releases and advertising, etc.
However, for several years, coordination of the department's activities has been one of the roles of the Privy Council Office. I myself manage a team of a hundred people who have been there a long time helping coordinate departments' communications. It makes sense. For example, if the Prime Minister announces something very important, we don't want other ministers making a different announcement the same day in the same city.
There is therefore a role to coordinate activities. It is also important to ensure that departments work together as a team. That is the role of the Privy Council Office. The Privy Council Office is not responsible for communications, but it does have a coordinating role to ensure that everyone is organized.
I have my own team, but because the Economic Action Plan requires more advertising, more communication activities, it was necessary to get some help from more people for a set period in order to ensure coordination. That is the difference between the two.
If the members of the Committee are interested, I can give you an idea of how the money we are talking about today is spent.