Health committee  Thank you.

Health committee  It depends on the contract. With some companies it is possible to split, for example, over two fiscal years. It's not always possible. In this case, we don't know. As I said, we are negotiating. We're still negotiating the contract. Sometimes.... I'll go back to this procedure or these signing authorities.

Health committee  That's included—always.

Health committee  We're back to this question about the quality of the information and the required information to use for the model and the projections. I'm in the hands of the committee. Of course, the committee can ask the PBO to do whatever and spend only $9. It doesn't matter; you're going to have the quality or the availability of data for that amount of money.

Health committee  Additional money from the committee? The committee will not provide.... For the moment, the agreement is not that the committee will provide any money. The cost will be.... Why doesn't the PBO ask for money from this committee? If we have to spend that amount of money—$50,000, $90,000, or over $100,000—we plan it within our budget, which is what I did so far.

Health committee  Can I get back to the committee on this? Can we discuss that in the office and then—

Health committee  This is the process. We, the Library of Parliament, have a contract. Before signing the contract, we send it to the two Speakers. In their procedures, it's written, “for approval in principle”. This is the wording that I'm quoting. Then they make a decision on it.

Health committee  The decision can be no. The decision can be yes. The decision can be that the two Speakers refer it to the Liaison Committee. I don't know. I have no control over the decision, of course. It's their decision.

Health committee  It's the plan and we will absorb it—of course we cannot absorb, you know, half a million dollars—but if it's something a little over $100,000, for example, then we plan to absorb the costs, do the study, and own the data, eventually. There is this threshold at which I don't have the authority to sign for this kind of contract.

Health committee  —which is the normal procedure. The PBO has never done it for a study for a committee, as I mentioned before. The library did, in the past, have some contracts. I believe it was IT contracts or something that they had to send for approval in principle, which is part of the briefing book that the library prepares and that I prepare for the Speaker every time there is a new Speaker.

Health committee  That's an excellent question. As I mentioned, the approval in principle must be done by the two Speakers, the Senate Speaker and the House of Commons Speaker, so I refer to the clerk of this committee and the administration of this committee to decide whether or not they want to send something.

Health committee  I assume the best approach will be to keep this committee informed of our most recent developments, to go ahead with the request for information to the department to cover your request, to continue our negotiations about having access and paying for the data from IMS Brogan to see how much that could cost, and to provide that information to the committee.

Health committee  Thank you for the question. Just to be clear, the Quebec government will provide, according to my latest discussion on Friday, the information we need for free. There's no cost there. It's only a matter of having the proper support. As I said, we need electronic files, which are easier to work with, and so on, for the model.

Health committee  It has not happened for a study. For a court case in 2012-2013 it happened, but not for a study. Mr. Chair, the member raised a very interesting point concerning access to the department's information, if the department has the information. Of course, we can ask this committee....You have the power to call for papers and people, including data, which is something we do for all the studies we do, either for individual parliamentarians or for a committee.

Health committee  In terms of negotiations or discussions with the provinces, it's looking good so far. I had a discussion last week with the Quebec department of health. That looks okay. We are exchanging, and they are quite open in terms of providing some information. Regarding the other type of specific information owned by the only firm in Canada that holds this kind of data on private-public coverage, Carleigh, as I said, and Mark, who is the legal counsel in the PBO's office, are looking into all the agreements and making sure we're going to get the data that the taxpayers' money will be paying for.