I grabbed the second part of the question more than the first. If I can deal with the funding mechanism, the late auditor general Michael Ferguson wrote to the Minister of Finance in 2018 setting out what he proposed to be an option for an independent funding mechanism. To my knowledge, that was the first time since 2015 that our office engaged on that issue with government. In January 2019, in one of the last letters Mr. Ferguson signed—he co-signed it with five other agents of Parliament—they asked the Clerk of the Privy Council Office about independent funding mechanisms. We've had preliminary discussions with our colleagues at the Privy Council Office, but those discussions haven't progressed very far right now.
On June 13th, 2019. See this statement in context.