Government Operations committee  I don't have the letter in front of me, and I wasn't a signatory to the letter, but generally speaking, any efforts that can be taken to underscore the essential importance of the independence of agents of Parliament is something that I would be supportive of. It's also essential to achieve certain of the priorities I mentioned—for example, increased awareness of and confidence among public servants to come forward.

Government Operations committee  I am certainly aware of the letter and of that letter having been written. I have not been briefed, or haven't been briefed yet, on the current status of discussions or negotiations. When we agents of Parliament meet, which is regularly, we certainly discuss shared issues of concern.

Government Operations committee  I'll turn it over to Ms. Fraser to walk us through that, if I may.

Government Operations committee  Could I also clarify that as a micro-organization, which I think is our official designation—we're smaller than small—we don't have internal information management, information technology services, or internal human resources services. We buy those services from PWGSC and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and that represents a large portion of what we classify as our external costs.

Government Operations committee  We have the security classifications for each of those, and they must have and maintain those security requirements. Expressly under the law, if we are working on.... It's possible that we could be working on an investigation that includes top secret information, and we ensure that we have at least two members of our staff who have current top secret clearance at all times.

Government Operations committee  We do provide our own training and orientation to new employees. From an operational perspective, for our investigators we have developed a statement of qualifications that emphasizes the need to have direct investigative experience and direct administrative investigation experience as well.

Government Operations committee  We have used technological tools to conduct focus group testing. That's a national initiative. We are currently looking into the possibility of making an online form available to people who want to disclose or complain in order to simplify the process for registering a complaint or disclosing alleged wrongdoings.

Government Operations committee  We are currently exploring the possibility of using a cross-government case management system. It's a shared system. For the time being, we have an internal electronic case management system. Considering the financial resources, I hope that the shared system will be more affordable and effective.

Government Operations committee  That's a very important issue for us because confidentiality of information is a pillar of our regime. With Ms. Fraser's help, we are making sure that all the necessary protections are in place to avoid problems such as privacy breaches.

Government Operations committee  Perhaps Patricia could answer your question.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  No, we would not be, and we're very cognizant of the fact that Parliament did not create our office as a new police force. We respect the specific jurisdiction of the police and the different kind of investigation that is required, including a different standard of proof, a burden of proof, between an administrative investigative body such as ours and a criminal investigative body such as the police.

Government Operations committee  And some administrative investigations can be very ongoing and long. I can think of one investigation for which we have four shelves of boxes of documents for one allegation of wrongdoing in our office. They can become very complex, and they vary from one case to another.

Government Operations committee  Under our legislation we have express authority to contract for services to assist us if needed. We have used that to get expert advice and expert counsel, if and when necessary. We've also put in place a standing offer for external investigative services. That's a group of outside investigative services that we have opened to other departments as well so they can benefit when they're doing their internal investigations, because we of course are the external investigators, but a wrongdoing can also be disclosed internally and investigated without our involvement.

Government Operations committee  If during the course of an investigation into an allegation of wrongdoing we determine there may be a criminal violation or criminal activity involved, we have express authorization under our legislation to refer that portion of the investigation to the relevant police force or the office of the Attorney General of Canada, and we have done that on occasion.