A huge shock.
First of all, I want to echo the Speaker's comments, and thank Madame Côté and the front-line officers for the tremendous work they do. They have our strongest support and appreciation.
As you know, there's a great deal of concern around here about the fact that the PPS's mandate requires it to have an RCMP officer in charge, which gives it lines of authority through the commissioner. This has always given us issues of privilege as a basis of concern. You'll notice I have a bill on today's Notice Paper that would address that. It has not been introduced, so I can't go into it more at the moment, but it is there.
I want to focus on your obligations regarding the PPS per the Parliament of Canada Act and the MOU that your predecessors signed some years ago. Subsection 79.52(2) of the Parliament of Canada Act reads:
The Speaker of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Commons are, as the custodians of the powers, privileges, rights and immunities of their respective Houses and of the members of those Houses, responsible for the Service.
Section 79.57 reads:
Before each fiscal year, the Speaker of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Commons shall cause to be prepared an estimate of the sums that will be required to pay the expenditures of the Service during the fiscal year and shall transmit the estimate to the President of the Treasury Board, who shall lay it before the House of Commons with the estimates of the government for the fiscal year.
I trust you're familiar with these sections. Madam Côté, how often do you personally, as the acting director, meet with the two Speakers?