I would like to go back to the start. I think there's a clarification that's required. If I understood well, I don't recall something about there being an ability to remove the ombudsman. I don't think that was the nature of the discussion.
Let me come at it this way. The ombudsman has been in place now for about a year and a half. It will be two years in November. I think part of the issue, as I see it—and I looked at the testimony that was here last week—is about what I call access to information. If I could, I'll just park that for a second. The fact that there is a difference of opinion on some of the issues around homelessness I think is just one of many issues. There are many issues we are working on together. I think, though, the issue seems to be around access to cabinet information. I think it's well understood in this town that in fact there are various privileges of the Queen's Privy Council and that cabinet information is not open.
The issue of the doctrine of solicitor-client privilege I think is well accepted both in the private and public sector. I would argue that the legal opinion I or one of my colleagues in legal may have gotten, for example, is maybe not overly germane. I would view it that the role of the ombudsman is to identify if there's a problem as it relates to a particular client or in fact if there's a systemic issue with a policy or program. I think that's where the focus is. Understanding what the legal opinion was or who got a legal opinion is not necessarily where I think we need to be. By the same token, we need to go back to the order in council, and the order in council states that.
In terms of the issues that are there, I won't enter into that discussion. I'll leave it, if I could, to the lawyers who may want to debate the word “review” and so on and forth. From that standpoint, I think things are working relatively well with the ombudsman. There's an issue, and these issues will come up from time to time, but as I stated earlier, the good news is that we actually have an ombudsman and we actually have a bill of rights.