I would ask Mr. Lynch or Ms. Mondou to have a look at page 219 of the bill, proposed sections 509.4 and 509.6. I'd like to come back to that before the end of my question. It's a very technical question.
For the Minister, the new section 20 of the act basically says the Chief Electoral Officer may engage on a temporary basis the service of persons having technical or specialized knowledge, but it goes on to say that to appropriate the funds for that he has to get Treasury Board approval. That's section 20 of the act.
Minister, could you confirm that this provision now means that Elections Canada would no longer have the independence to commission such reports as the Neufeld report, which you like to cite, or the Institute for Research and Public Policy's study on robocalls that was instrumental in putting together the Chief Electoral Officer's report on deceptive calling. The need for the approval of the Treasury Board is something I'm very concerned about in terms of inserting the government between the Chief Electoral Officer and his ability to carry out studies.