Thank you very much, Chair.
I want to thank the Auditor General and her entire team again for appearing in front of our committee and for the wisdom of the responses we get. Chair, I think you'll agree that whatever we hear from the Auditor General, whether it's through the reports or in answer to questions that members bring up, is measured and balanced. There is a lot of work behind those answers. They're not gratuitous. They're not looking for sensationalist headlines. They're not trying to mislead Canadians. We're getting the right time of day when we hear from the team at the Auditor General's office and from the Auditor General herself.
Along that line, Auditor General, among the things you've talked about today was this issue of chronic underfunding of IT projects, which has led to big trouble, as we've seen, later on, with problematic contracts later on and this idea that being penny-wise and pound foolish is somehow the way to handle public finances. We've heard this time and time again, and we've seen this in previous governments: Cheap gets what cheap buys, and this use of public taxpayers' money is just a disservice to Canadians.
You also talked a little earlier about how piling on regulations is not necessarily the way to go, nor is doubling the work being done by different agencies, your office, the ombud or the RCMP, but Conservatives and other members have been quick to criticize any institution or office that does not push a narrative they support. Can you confirm for Canadians here today that your office is free from political interference?