You can also draw more blood if you succeed. That's on the first hand. That's a natural tendency.
On the other hand, as I have tried to emphasize, there's a statutory framework that gives responsibility to deputy ministers. Now we call them accounting officers because of their managerial responsibilities. They have recourse under the Financial Administration Act, as amended by the Federal Accountability Act. If they are given an improper instruction, they can appeal to the Secretary of the Treasury Board, and the Treasury Board secretary can issue an opinion. If that answer is, “No, Minister”, the minister can appeal to the Treasury Board itself, and the Treasury Board can give an opinion.
There is also an avenue of recourse of a deputy minister to the Clerk of the Privy Council, and that, as I understand, is used once or twice a year by deputy ministers. Now, there are areas in which there could be a profound disagreement not within the managerial responsibilities of an accounting officer, and presumably that would be used there.