Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I am able to give him an answer, since it is in the minutes of the meeting at which the Governor General's two representatives testified.
I had asked the two representatives the following question:
—can you tell us how much the structure surrounding the Governor General costs and how much the other departments pay for that? Could you give us something understandable and accessible for the average person?
The answer that I and the other committee members were given is as follows:
I think it would be up to the other departments to give you a full report. We expect to give you the figure for our department. I cannot tell you whether, generally speaking, our costs can be compared to those offered by other departments.
I will close by repeating exactly what I said earlier, and that will be my answer to my colleague opposite. That was the very aim of one of the committee's recommendations in the spring 2004, but they did nothing about it. The answer we received is proof.