Foreign Affairs committee  Well, in this particular case I was on leave, so I can't answer this from a personal—

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, somebody did take my place—

Foreign Affairs committee  When these matters come forward, the deputy is briefed, and the deputy will then take a decision as to whether or not this is a matter that needs to be discussed with other deputies or with the Clerk of the Privy Council.

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, this is the first time I've seen this letter.

Foreign Affairs committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, do you mean brief him on consular cases or brief him on anything?

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, we meet—and it's a pretty common practice across government—formally at least a once a week to conduct departmental business.

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, I meet almost all of them, I would say, at least once a week for one matter or another.

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, in fact, deputies contact each other a lot to conduct—

Foreign Affairs committee  Not always at the deputy level, no. I think a lot of the work is done at lower levels. It has to be done at lower levels.

Foreign Affairs committee  If the issue comes to the attention of the deputy as needing his attention. I mean, if an issue comes to me for my information, I may not engage on it, depending on the seriousness.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate the invitation to appear before the committee today to discuss the consular services provided to Canadians by the Government of Canada and, in my case certainly, by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Today

Public Accounts committee  Not really. Again, I'd like to thank the committee for its interest in this very important matter. We are going to be moving forward with our transformation agenda, and this will feature as an important part of it. Thank you.

Public Accounts committee  Actually, you're making a very good suggestion in the course of your question, because we are in the process of designing our recruitment program for the autumn, which I would certainly like to see have much broader advertisements, such as the kind you are referring to, so that w

Public Accounts committee  Well, I can't speak for the seven or eight years. Let me just comment. I think that what we have here from the Auditor General is an extremely useful evaluation and criticism of our system inside the department. It has provided us with a valuable piece of advice about what we n

Public Accounts committee  First of all, I think that senior managers such as deputy ministers will take audit reports very seriously. I hope the report card we have provided today indicates that we have taken the last report very seriously. Second, as the Auditor General has said, the ability of deputie