Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, perhaps it's a question of the degree of amendment required. I think the act does reflect some key important concepts in terms of a complete whistle-blowing regime, but I think we're at the point now where, with the number of years of experience we have, we can make some changes.

Government Operations committee  I have approximately 30 people. The focus of our resources is the operational front. We're a micro agency so, for example, I don't have my own IM/IT or HR. We buy those services from the Human Rights Commission and Public Works.

Government Operations committee  Like any other—

Government Operations committee  I will say that the resources we have now, with our approximately $5 million budget, appear to be sufficient to allow us to do our work. We'll be lapsing a little bit of money this year. We set some aside for contingencies. For example, you may know that we had a case report that we tabled in Parliament, and the department in question, the RCMP, sought to set that aside, and that cost us about $200,000 in legal fees, for example, so we're balancing those contingencies at all times.

Government Operations committee  The three cases you mention offer some interesting contrasts. For example, Ms. Gualtieri never went through the whistle-blowing system. She went through the court system, which is always an option for anyone. That may be because she didn't feel she had confidence in the system, I'm not sure, but I respect her decision in any regard.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting me to appear once more to discuss the review of the PSDPA, as we refer to it. It's a pleasure for me to be here this morning and to continue the discussion we began last month. I am pleased to have with me my general counsel Brian Radford, who I am going to invite to take an active part in the discussions today.

Government Operations committee  Part of this goes to good investigative procedure as well.

Government Operations committee  Yes, in fact. This was in another province. In one of our earlier cases, we actually had the whistle-blower contact us to say, “I think something may be going on”, so we put an investigator on a plane immediately and went to—

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have also provided in your binders the contact information of all the members of my senior management team. I assure you that we remain available at your convenience to answer any questions or provide any information that you, Mr. Chair, or committee members may have.

Government Operations committee  I wouldn't say that we've had many, but when we have encountered that hurdle, it has certainly interfered with our ability to complete an investigation in the way we would have liked to complete it. I don't know if I could say that it has prevented us from making a finding of wrongdoing, but it has certainly slowed things down and forced us to try to find information in the hands of other people.

Government Operations committee  I don't see a particular benefit in using a third party for the purposes of protecting confidentiality. I may not fully understand the question, but I'd be happy to come back to it if there is time.

Government Operations committee  I think it's certainly possible that people could and would do what they can to avoid producing—

Government Operations committee  One good thing about the technological world we live in is that if information in the hands of one person is destroyed, it is also in the hands of many other people. We've gone in and we've essentially seized servers. We've had our own IM/IT people come in and go to backup servers—

Government Operations committee  Pardon me?

Government Operations committee  In the—