That's perfect.
To the Auditor General, I have a bit more time to clarify that statement and that question in relation to the strike that took place in your office and the impact to service work and our job at public accounts to have predictable audits at the time we needed them. You, I believe, being an independent office, would know how critical that is for Parliament, and the importance of your role in the perseverance of democracy, as my colleague from the Bloc put it.
Given that the strike was there, it's my perspective that we should try to end all strike avenues to prevent further strikes in the future that affect the work of the government, in particular independent offices.
In your comments, you mentioned in comment 5 that “the President of the Treasury Board gives our office its mandate for collective bargaining. This mandate establishes the maximum amount of pay and specifies the other terms and conditions of employment that may be offered by our office during collective bargaining.”
You also mentioned that your role in that was in some sense limited by this “fence”. Can you describe what that fence limited you to do in relation to those things? If that fence had not been there, would the situation have been resolved differently?