I think that all of those questions come down to this one, if I can put it that way, Madam Chair, namely whether we are issuing extremely specific and clear guidelines to ensure that the freeze on operating budgets is managed the same way everywhere.
Indeed, departments and deputy ministers manage their operation budgets based on a series of rules and guidelines which are issued by the Treasury Board and the Treasury Board Secretariat. These guidelines and approaches continue to apply at this time, but each department and each deputy minister must manage their resources based on priorities, programs and their mandate. Therefore, some departments choose to provide more services one way, whereas other departments provide them in other ways.
We are already operating within the system which allows different organizations to function in different ways, within a general framework, and based on their mandate and their programs. That has not changed, and it will not change even with the freeze on operating budgets. This is the way we currently operate, and this is the way we will continue to operate.