Information & Ethics committee  The reserve is $550,000. As I say, only in one case--in this fiscal year, not last fiscal year--have we actually taken a trip in connection with an investigation. But it could happen that we need to do a certain amount of travel. It depends on the investigation. It could be more complex than anything we've done so far.

Information & Ethics committee  It would go to the CRF, I assume. We don't get to pocket it.

Information & Ethics committee  No, no.

Information & Ethics committee  It's probably a little bit easier for us than the other agents of Parliament. Basically, we just submit it to the Speaker, the Speaker submits it to the Treasury Board president, and then you as a committee examine it. That's about the top and bottom of it.

Information & Ethics committee  So far.

Information & Ethics committee  The only fly in the ointment, I guess, would be if a person who is being investigated in a particular case drags their feet in giving information. That could slow the investigation down. Generally speaking, though, we've had very good luck with carrying on the cases. People are always compliant, and we get the information we ask for.

Information & Ethics committee  I think we've done virtually everything we can do now with the backlogs. Basically, there are a number of different deadlines in the act and the code. In the act, there's a 60-day deadline to get your statements in. We're not getting them within the 60 days now only if, for some reason, we aren't told about the new person in the job.

Information & Ethics committee  We did receive a couple of requests which did not provide enough information. So we contacted the people and asked for more details. We had a good relationship with the plaintiffs. This happened three or four times last year.

Information & Ethics committee  Annual reviews is another one. They're supposed to respond within a certain length of time for those too. That's the panoply, I think.

Information & Ethics committee  We considered six or eight requests, but we decided that in only one instance was it worthwhile to initiate an investigation.

Information & Ethics committee  I do not recall the exact number, but there have been very few. I think we had between six and eight direct requests from the public to carry out investigations.

Information & Ethics committee  We have recently initiated such an investigation.

Information & Ethics committee  The plaintiff is always kept informed as well.

Information & Ethics committee  It's difficult to say because only between six and eight of the requests required an investigation. However, some of the complaints we receive from the public were not specific at all. So we estimated that only between six and eight requests were legitimate.

Information & Ethics committee  We have to keep information that's given to us confidential. We don't want to destroy anybody's reputation, so we're very careful not to suggest there's a problem if we don't have sufficient evidence. As soon as we begin an investigation, under the act and the code we are not permitted to disclose anything about it except the fact that there is an investigation.