Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  The 2010 audit was done following an audit by the Auditor General. It was quite a long and costly process. We think we are in a position to conduct a complete and fair internal audit.

Government Operations committee  Precisely. The results will be made public, of course.

Government Operations committee  The quality assurance project is a sort of paper exercise. In my opinion, it differs from a satisfaction survey. We are, however, considering the possibility of conducting such a survey. I discussed it with my American counterparts, and I asked them to share their experiences with us and the lessons learned.

Government Operations committee  No. That is not a part of quality assurance. It's more an audit of processes and steps.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm happy to share with the members of the committee all of the details of our quality assurance project, even though it is an internal process. This project is the outcome of an audit that was done by Deloitte & Touche in 2010, an audit that had been requested following an audit done by the Office of the Auditor General.

Government Operations committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here and to see you and the committee members once again. I'm accompanied this morning by Éric Trottier, our chief financial officer. The purpose of my appearance this morning is to share with you information about our plans and priorities to explain how we have worked within our relatively small budget to achieve these priorities and how we will continue to do so in the coming year.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Government Operations committee  I do not have the power to order discipline. The last two case reports involved behavioural issues of executives. In the first one, one of my recommendations was to take appropriate discipline. I'm not on the ground in that department to know what the person's record is, what the effects of the actions were.

Government Operations committee  When I issue a case report, prior to the case report is a full investigative report with all the details. The deputy minister has that. They can base that on a very detailed case report. For example, the last case report I issued, which is about 12 pages in what we released publicly, behind that is a huge preliminary investigation report that all affected parties comment on, and then a final report.

Government Operations committee  Our ability to make recommendations for corrective action and to follow up on them appears to me to be working very well in the 13 case reports that we've had to date.

Government Operations committee  Certainly this act was created to provide a whistle-blowing regime for the public sector. My belief is that everybody in this country has the right to be protected against reprisal for coming forward with information that they reasonably believe to be true. I don't know if this act is the appropriate vehicle.

Government Operations committee  Again, the....

Government Operations committee  I think there are several issues in that question, one again being I think there's value in having access to as many routes or avenues or options as possible to come forward with your concerns.

Government Operations committee  Yes, you raise a very important issue, and one that I would be lying if I were to say we have not thought about and discussed ourselves over the years as to what the best structure might be. Right now, reporting is done through Treasury Board. If there's an internal finding of wrongdoing within a department, it's very different than if I make a finding.