Obviously, that is something the government decides.
There is one thing I wanted to underscore when I appeared before the committee last week, and today again I wrote to the Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development regarding the issue. The auditing role and the role of government advisor, whether it be regarding policies or other matter, are incompatible. We cannot give advice and opinions on policies and then audit them, because that could give the impression that we are not objective.
We never comment on policies; we simply review policies that have been implemented. We therefore cannot act as advisors, i.e., express our views on future policy direction.
Today, I indicated to the committee that it is up to the government and Parliament to decide whether the commissioner should be independent in terms of policies, etc. Given the work we have done over the past few years—going back even before the position of commissioner was created—I hope that environmental audits will continue to be part of our mandate. We find that it is an important part of our work and we included in almost all of our audits, when it is relevant. I hope that this part of the auditing process will not be removed from our office. I hope that we can keep doing environmental audits, but if someone wants to establish a commissioner's position for other work, we have no comments to make.