Certainly, Mr. Chair.
I would say that one reason we have so many cases that we do not deal with is that we are not the right place to come to. We have great discretion under our act to direct people to the appropriate place. People come to us thinking, for example, that we might be one of the other agents of Parliament, or that we are the Auditor General, or that we are the Public Service Commission. It really is our responsibility to clarify who we are, but also who we are not.
The role we play is also that of an independent, neutral agent. We do not represent whistle-blowers. I'd like to say that we advocate on behalf of whistle-blowing; we don't advocate on behalf of individual whistle-blowers. We don't represent a party. That is a surprisingly challenging message for us to get across, but we are consistent in the clarity of our communications with disclosers, potential or real, with complainants, potential or actual, of what we can and can't do for them.
I would also point out an interesting feature of our legislation is that we actually provide money to parties coming forward to allow them to seek legal counsel, to get some legal advice. Clarity in our dealing with each and every case, and dealing with each and every case in all its complexity under the restrictions of our law, is a key priority. It defines both the operational obligation we have and the operational challenge we have.