No, I do not think so. This is a very frustrating situation for us. I even think that it could affect the office's independence. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat gave us the mandate to negotiate with our employees. At the office, there are two unionized groups. We negotiated with them in good faith and we reached an agreement. Now the secretariat refused to approve it, and frankly, I find this unacceptable.
We want to solve this problem with the secretariat and to reach a clear understanding of future procedures. They could give us a general mandate or envelope, but they should then honour the agreement.