Mr. Chair, I couldn't argue with that point. I felt particularly empowered by my order in council, in that my annual report was to be tabled by the minister, at his convenience. It's really the passage of information that's important.
What I feel very strongly is that the ombudsman should be a special adviser to the minister, to offer the minister the balance between his understanding of what's coming to him from the deputy and what's happening at the grassroots. I recognize the job of our elected officials. I certainly would never want to take it on myself. But in the final analysis, the minister is only as good as the information being provided to him or her.
I have seen fundamentally flawed information coming out of the department. We challenged question period notes at one point in time when we were on the distribution list for them, and the action of the department was to cut us out of the distribution list for question period notes. If I were the minister--I'm an information hog--I would want to have many sources of reconnaissance available to me. I think the critical link is to really be able to link with the minister.