Thank you.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. It's good to have you back, Dr. Franks.
I worry that if we don't have agreement between the executive and this committee on what constitutes an accounting officer, then when the executive meets with the committee, nothing will be accomplished because no one will agree on what the meeting actually constitutes. If the accounting officer is instructed by the executive branch to represent only the accountability of the minister, but the committee believes that the accounting officer operates within his or her own sphere, then the expectations that the committee has in its questions will not be fulfilled in the accounting officer's answers.
It is my belief that we have to continue to work to find some sort of consensus on what constitutes an accounting officer for the purposes of this committee, or this entire undertaking will have been a colossal waste of time.
I have to say, as a member of the government--