I agree with Ms. Boucher, Madam Chair; it is important that the Minister appears before the committee. However, I have experience of other committees where even the Minister could not answer all of the questions because he had so many different files to juggle. Remember that last year the Minister of Health delegated the responsibility of answering our questions to his deputy ministers. The current minister is the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages. She obviously would not be able to answer all of our questions off the top of her head.
Status of Women Canada, the agency responsible for managing the program, already has a good grasp of the issues. With the help of departmental officials, we too can get a handle on the issues. If the Minister has time to come to see us later, then so much the better. We can use the opportunity to ask her more specific questions as to where Status of Women Canada is heading, after having come to grips with the basics.