I'd be pleased to.
Let's take a few examples. The Prime Minister is not only the Prime Minister; he's also Minister for Youth and Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs. As Minister for Youth, he has also asked for the establishment of the youth council. He has asked for the development of a youth service initiative that was also laid out in the budget, and he is looking overall for PCO to coordinate youth policy across government. That requires a small secretariat to be established within PCO to support that activity.
The Prime Minister is Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs, and certainly, in this day and age, whether one is speaking about infrastructure, housing, or climate change, all of these issues require more and more collaborative work with the provinces. There have already been two first ministers' meetings over the past year. Another one is planned to occur before the end of the year. The level of activity in intergovernmental affairs is higher than it has been over the last number of years; therefore, some supplementary resources have been sought for this purpose.
In terms of appointments and Governor in Council appointments, this government has promoted an approach to appointments to boards, crown corporations, and commissions, for both full-time and part-time appointments, that involves a merit-based, competitive, open process. That has meant opening these processes to have a wider reach regarding applications. We've received 4,000 applications to date for numerous positions in the public sector writ large. Implementing this policy has required supplementary resources in our senior personnel secretariat.
Those are the kinds of changes resulting from the Prime Minister's or the government's decision to emphasize new functions and to reach out further to provinces or to potential candidates for certain positions in order to support their agenda. The Privy Council Office's resources have to reflect those incremental commitments by the Prime Minister and the government.