Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. In terms of how we've been supporting the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, as you know, signalled his commitment to Canada's young people by assuming the role of Minister of Youth. We have within PCO a youth secretariat that supports the Prime Minister in his capacity by providing the strategic leadership, the policy advice, and the coordination on youth commitments.

Government Operations committee  The appointments file has been very successful over the past year. We have done a number of different transactions. Almost 400 appointments were made after following an open and transparent merit-based selection process; approximately 290 short-term transitional appointments to ensure the continuity of service to Canadians; and approximately 740 appointments made through other selection processes.

Government Operations committee  Okay, thank you. Good morning, Chair, and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting the Privy Council Office to review our 2017-18 supplementary estimates (B). As you know, the mandate of the Privy Council Office is to provide professional, non-partisan advice and support to the Prime Minister and ministers within his portfolio, and to support the effective operation of cabinet.

Government Operations committee  Within days we can arrange payments.

Government Operations committee  Whenever we go forward with a Treasury Board submission to seek monies in order to deliver on a program, there is a piece that's internal services. That's for the underlying back office function that we provide. We're not going to charge them directly for the use of a financial system or for the services I would provide to them directly, but that's built into what we call a fee, but it's actually an internal services cost.

Government Operations committee  Maybe I can be a little clearer. The commission will be hiring roughly 65 people during this year. They won't be employees of PCO, but it will be on our books, because all of the funds for the commission will appear in our main estimates. It's not a separate organization. It simply seemed best, for the sake of expediency and cost effectiveness, to have that attached to our organization.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.

Government Operations committee  I'm not certain exactly how to respond to that. Within the controls of PCO, we will do our due diligence to make sure all of the transactions that happen are done in accordance. We have our own internal control framework set up to manage the resources of Canada, that are part of our responsibility, like any other resources within PCO.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I will take the questions. As I mentioned, just specifically with regard to providing funds to the commission of inquiry for murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, even though we're coming here for supplementary (A) estimates, and it's the first time we're coming for those resources, we've had enough resources within the PCO budget to be able to pay for expenditures related to the commission up to this point so they have not been without resources available for what they would need in terms of doing it.

Government Operations committee  It would have had nothing to do with the plan. As soon as they hit the ground running, as soon as they wanted to.... For example, the first office we opened on their behalf was in Vancouver. We had staff go out right away and look at facilities within Vancouver to see what would be appropriate for the chief commissioner in terms of setting up their operations.

Government Operations committee  On a couple of things, maybe what I can do is to preface what the role of the PCO is before I get into responding directly to your questions. Because the commission of inquiry is an independent commission, so a separate arm's-length organization in terms of the decision-making, the role that the PCO plays is really under the administrative support for the commission of inquiry.

Government Operations committee  Unfortunately, we don't track the numbers of staff at the PMO.

Government Operations committee  I didn't say that. I would say that the lead person who is responsible for our public opinion polling research is our assistant secretary for communications. She is responsible for the overall budget of $2 million and, based on consultations and discussions within PCO, as well as within the PMO, will decide what kind of public opinion research would be undertaken.

Government Operations committee  This is specifically within PCO.

Government Operations committee  I can't be very specific with regard to that, but it's likely that we would have our colleagues at Shared Services Canada involved in doing that. We would also have contracts related to professional services in addition to that, as well as our internal folks working on those websites.