Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. I do have a number of things I wanted to say. As I mentioned, there were four pillars of our renewal initiative. I think probably the most important one was planning, in that our HR planning was done in isolation from our business planning. So we made

Government Operations committee  I referred to a scorecard earlier. Perhaps I could just clarify that this is a scorecard that gives the results of deputies' commitments in the public service renewal action plans. We've had three of them so far, and the fourth one will be issued shortly. In it there will be a sp

Government Operations committee  Excuse me; we certainly do exit interviews with all of our deputy ministers who leave the public service. That's a recent innovation. Mainly, it's not to talk about their future so much as their past, the experiences they've had, and what we can learn from that.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention what was announced in the Speech from the Throne and the budget, which is the review of administrative services. The government recently announced a deputy minister who will be in charge of that review. It will look at all

Government Operations committee  Madam Chairman, could I just add one thought there? I don't want to leave the impression that there are no checks and balances on the use of the Challenger jets. I think we should undertake to provide you with that.

Government Operations committee  It's not one within my purview, but I think we shouldn't leave the impression that there's none. We need to provide that information to you.

Government Operations committee  Would you mind if I added to that answer?

Government Operations committee  There are a number of accountability mechanisms to ensure that the deputy ministers community is responsive to the strategic direction that is set by the Clerk of the Privy Council as head of the public service. One of them is the annual performance management agreement and the w

Government Operations committee  Ms. Meredith may want to help me on this one. I think the way that would be looked at, in the current environment of an operating budget freeze, is that there will still be some priorities that will be funded from central resources. At least that's how I understand it.

Government Operations committee  Maybe a week? Or is that too long?

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I think I understand the question, and I will undertake to get the detailed answer. Just as an overall comment, I do think it's been a somewhat extraordinary year for the Privy Council Office with the G8, the G20, the Olympics, the Afghanistan task force. So there pro

Government Operations committee  I think we're responsible to the Prime Minister, as the minister designated for our department.

Government Operations committee  We're here to answer to Parliament, but we're not accountable directly to Parliament.

Government Operations committee  This is not an area that I'm responsible for, so I'm afraid I won't be able to answer that question.

Government Operations committee  Not on that topic, no.