I have a couple of questions, Mr. O'Sullivan.
The question on the tenure of deputy ministers has been asked by most of my colleagues. Mr. Fitzpatrick mentioned that at Indian Affairs and Northern Development we've had about seven or eight deputies over the last ten years, and a lot of unfavourable reports from the Auditor General's office. We are really in a difficult position, in that we cannot blame any one deputy because they've been there for probably only 14 months or 16 months, and they don't even know where the washrooms are by the time they're ushered out. You're saying Mr. Wernick is a young man. Mr. Horrigan was not an old man either, and he came before us about 18 months ago and said he was going to clean the department up, and now he's gone.
It is my premise that if Privy Council wants to churn the deputy ministers so often in one department, especially a department that according to the Auditor General is having some problems, then the Privy Council Office has to accept full responsibility for the mismanagement of that department.
My question to you is, in dealing with this specific department, does the office of the Clerk of the Privy Council accept responsibility for the problems that we see in this department? You can't blame the deputy ministers, because you've had seven of them. There's no one deputy minister you can point to. You've had seven deputy ministers there, so my question is, does the office assume responsibility for the problems?