Government Operations committee  You are correct in saying that you don't see oversight from PCO for that block of money, because we don't have oversight for that block of money. I, as the chief financial officer, and Karen, as the deputy chief financial officer, advise the clerk and the Prime Minister on the ap

Government Operations committee  Mr. Lebel, as the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, would have at the essence of his mandate communications with the leaders of provinces and territories. He is supported in doing that, as I said, by the analysts who are specialists in that at the Privy Council Office, who w

Government Operations committee  All ministers get advice from various sources. The public service is just one of them. I described earlier the mandate of the public service vis-à-vis ministers. Certainly at the Privy Council Office we have a small section of folks who provide advice, non-partisan public servant

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Again, I think I'm not going to give you a very satisfying answer. I have no knowledge of what we do on polling at the Privy Council Office. Generally speaking, any matters pertaining to communications I would refer to my colleague, Mr. Ian McCowan

Government Operations committee  Unfortunately, I don't have that with me because I'm not the chief financial officer for that institution, and I'm sure that if the committee wanted to invite them to appear before you to speak to their budget, both the amount and how they're planning to spend it, they would be h

Government Operations committee  Well—

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Unfortunately, that is my answer again this morning. In terms of the nature of the Privy Council itself and what a privy councillor is, there is the usual political science explanation around that and—

Government Operations committee  That's a very good question. Thank you for that. I think that question is best answered by my colleague, Mr. Joe Wild, who is in charge of machinery of government and could probably best describe for you what his function is. I apologize for not having that answer at my fingertip

Government Operations committee  We support the portfolio ministers for the Prime Minister, all of them, at the Privy Council in a couple of ways. We support the operation of their offices in the sense of technical and administrative support, so providing them with computer services, with HR services, and the no

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question and for your interest in that part of the Prime Minister's portfolio. The acronym that we use in my office is CICS. That's what we call it. I have not sufficient information with me today because I'm actually not responsible for that institution. It's

Government Operations committee  I'll start. Karen might have something to add, although we don't have a lot of time. Thank you.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Our reductions were made, I think, in a couple of broad categories. One was areas where we could transform the way that we worked. So, for instance, we had a secretariat, a group of people who were supporting the operations subcommittee of cabinet, and the assistant d

Government Operations committee  Thank you. It's a very good question. Thank you for the chance to speak to that. I think as all of you will well appreciate, we are fortunate in this country. We have an elected government. We have a democratic system. But governments can change. They reflect the will of the

Government Operations committee  Probably not as much as I would like to. I will say, first of all, that my colleagues at Infrastructure Canada of course have their own CFO, who I'm sure would be pleased to explain their spending. As well, on the question of statutory appropriations, my colleagues at the Treas

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. I think we have a bit of a two-part answer on that. I'm going to start, and Madame Cahill is going to speak after me. The reference to the executive decision in the estimates refers to the machinery decision made by the Prime Minister to include the