Our political staff do not represent the department. My departmental staff, in terms of who you see here.... You're talking about our deputy ministers and our Canadian Armed Forces members. Here we have the acting chief of the defence staff. They are here. Political staff who work for ministers' offices are not accountable to Parliament on behalf of the department; ministers are. This is what's been done in previous governments, and this is the practice that we have now.
As a minister, I am responsible to Parliament. I'm here to answer your questions.