Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, the information that I understood the commissioner to be collecting and requesting was for her to prepare herself to participate in the audit. The audit went to a very wide range of issues: human resource management, performance pay, interaction with staff, as well as

Public Accounts committee  Merci, monsieur le président. The decision will be that of the interim commissioner, but speaking personally, I would have absolutely no difficulty working with the Office of the Auditor General. I think we feel we know each other very well by now.

Public Accounts committee  I think it's objective, and it has also, Mr. Chair, contributed to a number of different levels. It's not that one person has a file next to another person who has a file and they undergo two different processes. The tracking and review process is consistent. Mr. Chair, if I ca

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chair, we are working on a list. We have actually a leading expert in the administrative law field in Canada who is an adviser and member of our team, and who is spearheading that from a technical legislative amendment perspective. We also have a project under way to assess a

Public Accounts committee  We are aiming, Mr. Chair, to support the five-year review. It's a five-year review defined by the act. So that would be April of 2012. We are I think well under way in at least putting together our more technical amendment issues at this time. Some of the other issues going to pe

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We can provide the information we have that does not involve violating our confidentiality provisions or the legislative provisions respecting personal or confidential information.

Public Accounts committee  We would be guided, Mr. Chair, by the provisions of the act, first and foremost. For example, the wrongdoing must occur within the public sector as defined. The public sector has particular inclusions and exclusions in that definition. For example, the Canadian Forces are not inc

Public Accounts committee  Are you asking how many files I have personally given advice on?

Public Accounts committee  I would have to review the numbers carefully.

Public Accounts committee  I'd estimate about half the files.

Public Accounts committee  If I can explain--

Public Accounts committee  I cannot think of a case in which the recommendation was not accepted. The process of coming up with a recommendation, as I tried to explain earlier, involves a number of stages and steps, debate, discussion--

Public Accounts committee  I think it's essential to respect the confidentiality requirements of our work. The very nature of our work depends on confidentiality. People will only come forward if they feel comfortable doing so confidentially. I can look at producing a breakdown of the types of cases and

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not aware of any formal grievance that was filed in our office. I can't really speak on behalf of the unions, of the role of the unions. I can say that the unions are a community that we have reached out to and made presentations to. And I can tell y

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this moment we are trying to ensure that we are as healthy as possible, and I wanted to reiterate the very sincere view that if there are current or former employees who feel there is an issue they could not bring forward before--and the situation has ch