Government Operations committee  The Minister of Heritage would be able to do that for you because she was responsible as the minister.

Government Operations committee  No. All I'm doing is offering my observations and personal experience that it seemed to me a rather odd application of the principle of solicitor-client privilege. I've never heard of that until I heard about it in that context.

Government Operations committee  Thank you.

Government Operations committee  It was not the administration; it was the lack of transparency in the program.

Government Operations committee  There are none that I'm aware of, no.

Government Operations committee  When I directly contacted them.

Government Operations committee  It's not a decision that I made in my department. I looked at various other things. I assume that the appropriate principles were applied by the minister in coming to that decision.

Government Operations committee  Well, for example, what I've not yet been able to figure out is the role of legal aid in that respect. For example, in Manitoba, we had an excellent program--the Public Interest Law Centre--that took all those kinds of cases and did a very good job in that respect. That was run t

Government Operations committee  How did you find out that it went through the court challenges program?

Government Operations committee  The media told you, but you weren't able to actually access that information from the court challenges program?

Government Operations committee  Assuming the media got it...and I don't know how they would get it when no one else has been able to get it. The only way they'd have been able to get it, probably, is through some kind of leak or by someone specifically telling them they had in fact received it. That concerns me

Government Operations committee  An aging workforce and increasing competition for the skills and knowledge of people are not something that is unique to the Government of Canada. It's affecting us right across the country. It's a challenge for all of us in terms of finding new individuals to fill the places of

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. That was the point I was getting to. It's not simply one principle that we apply, as important as that one constitutional principle is. We also have to see it in the context of the employees' rights as well. I can tell you that one of the things I've been motivated b

Government Operations committee  But perhaps I should say that this is a question that interests me a little more than some of the other questions, but that doesn't mean, on an objective basis, that they aren't all good questions. Just because there are a lot of rules doesn't necessarily mean you're getting val

Government Operations committee  Thank you.