Thank you, Mr. Saxton.
Before we go to the second round, I have a couple of questions.
Ms. Meredith, paragraph 2.11 of the report talks about the decentralization that occurred in 1993. It goes on to state:...the federal government decentralized the management of intellectual property and did not provide coordinated central guidance or support to federal entities. This presented challenges for federal government organizations, which had to develop their own infrastructure, including internal policies...
When I look at the whole advent of events since 1993--and I would support that decentralization policy--it seems to me that in developing the internal policies.... And now we have the auditor's report that a lot of the departments did not have any policies and weren't aware of the situation. It was a hodgepodge. Certain other agencies or departments seemed to have policies. But when I look at it from a pan-government point of view, Treasury Board would have been responsible for developing these pan-departmental policies on IP. I acknowledge that certain departments used it more than others, but they all should have been aware of it.
Your evidence here today is that you're a cheerleader. But I would have thought you would be a band leader in this whole thing over the years, not only in developing the policies but in making sure that all departments were adhering to the policies.
Do you not see the same role for Treasury Board as I do?