Officers of Parliament are supposed to be independent of the government. We don't report to the government or a minister. We report to Parliament. That is why I am appearing before the committee today. The only exception to that, as far as my office is concerned, is that our funding model is not independent of the government. I have to submit my requests for funding through the Minister of Justice, who then submits them to the Minister of Finance. The finance minister or the Prime Minister then decides whether to grant the request or not.
My office receives complaints about those departments, and we investigate those complaints. Those very departments are responsible for granting or rejecting my requests for additional funding. In my view, that goes against the independence of my office and the role of an officer of Parliament. I'm not the only one in that boat. You mentioned the Auditor General, and I know the same goes for the Privacy Commissioner.
Other officers of Parliament are fully independent, like the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, so independent funding models already exist. I think it's possible to consider implementing a similar model for my office.