Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone. Members of the committee, thank you for inviting us to speak to you today. I am accompanied by two colleagues from the Privy Council Office—Mr. Ward Elcock and Ms. Karen Cahill. As you may know, Mr. Elcock is the special advisor on

Government Operations committee  In 2012-13, that committee was housed in the committees that PCO supports. As you indicated, in 2012-13 it was a subcommittee of P and P. I don't have the actual terms of reference here with me, but they had a series of meetings—I think there were 12 or 13 meetings that year—to l

Government Operations committee  Generally speaking, cabinet committees meet when the House is in session. Sometimes they'll have a meeting the week before the House comes back. After the summer break, there may be meetings the week before the House comes back. At particularly busy times of year, around Christma

Government Operations committee  I would like to thank Mrs. Day for the question. I would draw your attention to the letter that the Privy Council Office sent to the RCMP on December 1, 2013. The letter speaks for itself, and I can't comment further on that.

Government Operations committee  Again, I would draw your attention to the letter that we sent to the RCMP on December 1, 2013.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. At the Privy Council Office, we are engaged in implementing a couple of priorities related to borders. We talked today about Mr. Elcock's efforts with respect to illegal migration, but there's another aspect of the work we do at the Privy Council Offi

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. I'll speak to the part that PCO controls. I can't speak to the part that other departments control. With respect to smuggling, PCO focuses on combatting migrant smuggling by sea. Mr. Elcock has a mandate to coordinate the efforts of key domestic par

Government Operations committee  That's a really interesting question, so thank you for the question. I don't know that I feel qualified to answer that question, because, like you, I am a bit new to PCO. I've been here for two years so I have a pretty good sense of what we do right now, but in terms of the lon

Government Operations committee  The nature of the unrelated litigation had to do with another federal government department.

Government Operations committee  HRSDC.

Government Operations committee  What you are speaking of is in essence the records management policy and, in addition to the legislation that governs what records need to be kept by public servants, is interpreted by Treasury Board guidelines on record-keeping. Information management is related to but does not

Government Operations committee  As I said before, there are rules regarding what records can be kept and what records can be deleted. All public servants are expected to follow those rules.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Mr. Chair, let me speak to why Mr. Elcock's function is nested in the Privy Council Office. It's because the Privy Council Office has the mandate to coordinate initiatives that are the priority of the government. Regarding illegal migration, Mr. Elcoc

Government Operations committee  If it gets to a point where it can be operationalized, yes, it does. If the requirement for coordination disappears and it can be operationalized, it does. I'll give you an example. For a number of years we had at the Privy Council Office the Afghanistan task force, which coordi

Government Operations committee  Yes. Mr. Alcock reports to Mr. Stephen Rigby, who is the national security advisor to the Prime Minister. Mr. Rigby reports to the Clerk of the Privy Council. The Clerk of the Privy Council reports to the Prime Minister.