Mr. Chairman, we've had a former RCMP officer check into this. The Auditor General checked into this. The Treasury Board checked into this. I don't think we are going to find the culprit here. But I would make a couple of recommendations for our consideration at a later date.
In the Auditor General's opening response, she said it may be a breach of our parliamentary privilege. I think we should report to the House that we consider leaks of this kind to be breaches of our parliamentary privilege.
I think we should commend the Auditor General for not releasing the chapters until she has a written acknowledgment by the department of their responsibilities.
We may as a committee take steps to say that if it appears that departments are leaking this information, the Auditor General can confirm the facts but cannot share conclusions and other information with departments until the reports are tabled here. The departments can table responses here within three weeks or so after the report's tabled so that they don't see what the Auditor General's saying and only the facts are confirmed. I agree that it's important. But let the government be on notice that they can't leak information that they think will help defer some of the wrath of the public by letting it out in little bits and pieces ahead of time.
Therefore, we do have some things at our disposal, Mr. Chairman. The Auditor General is an officer of Parliament and reports to us and not to the government. We could therefore instruct her to perhaps wait until she's tabled her report in the House before the government is aware of what she's actually saying.
Thank you.