I believe I have already indicated that I did not receive any direction directly from the minister's office in this regard. My instructions to hold the activity would have presumably come via either the associate or the deputy minister.
You would understand that there is a lot of non-written communication between the office of the deputy and the associate. There is also communication at meetings that I would have attended with the minister's office. But at no time on this file do I recall direction being received from the minister's office on this. It's five years ago, so my recollection is a little vague, but I believe it would have come from the associate deputy minister of the day to hold and to look up analysis and options with respect to this file.