Government Operations committee  If I could add clarity, it is not related to a party. It is related to the Government of Canada. It would have been the Conservative government, approved by the Prime Minister. It is not about the Conservative Party or the Liberal Party.

Government Operations committee  I would be pleased to do so.

Government Operations committee  I think it would be well understood in the advice from the Privy Council Office that the reason to have this is to be clear what can be redacted, what cannot be redacted and what must be redacted. The goal, of course, is to minimize redactions to what is absolutely necessary. That is the advice the PCO provides to departments.

Government Operations committee  I have not seen all the documents. I can speak for the Privy Council Office. We have two paragraphs that are redacted for cabinet confidence; they relate to a meeting in which there was a reference to a cabinet confidence. They do not materially impact the documents in any way. We have fully provided translated and unredacted documents as they relate to all McKinsey contracts.

Government Operations committee  I believe what you're asking is why we redacted it and they did not. We are bound by privacy policies and other policies. As I mentioned earlier, we cannot release commercially sensitive information without the permission of the company. We cannot release private information without the consent of the individual.

Government Operations committee  It is difficult for me to commit to doing that without knowledge of the information. I don't know the date of the email. I don't have any information that would allow us to find it. We have attempted to find it based on what we heard at a previous meeting. We have found no such email and certainly not in the June time frame, as I mentioned.

Government Operations committee  He's the deputy secretary to cabinet for governance, which includes machinery of government, as well as the legislative House planning role.

Government Operations committee  That would be out of the PCO.

Government Operations committee  As I mentioned, I think working with departments to try to scope the requests—

Government Operations committee  She was previously the assistant secretary to cabinet for legislative and House planning. She has since left PCO, as I mentioned.

Government Operations committee  Julia Aceti.

Government Operations committee  Paul Mackinnon.

Government Operations committee  I reflected in the last appearance...and when I read “Open and Accountable Government”, the very end of it talks about the importance of “Members of Parliament, in cooperation with Ministers and their offices, to find ways to respond to legitimate requests for information from Members of Parliament, within the limitations placed on them.”

Government Operations committee  I can't speak to the work with this committee, as it's a different part of the Privy Council Office. I was called a couple of weeks ago, and I've come today. I can speak to other examples where we have sought to provide information. As recently as February 13, 2023, the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs adopted a motion for the production of papers, requesting that VAC provide, and create if necessary, a transcript of recorded telephone conversations from January 25.

Government Operations committee  I apologize. I do not know which minister led it. However, it would have been the Prime Minister who approved it. It would normally be the Privy Council Office that worked with the Prime Minister's Office to draft it, and it would, ultimately, have been approved by the Prime Minister.