Government Operations committee  I understood that there was a discussion around that, and if my memory serves me right I think there was actually a ruling from the Speaker in the House. What I can say to you is the method by which the money is flowing now in terms of the ministers of state and the ministers is

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Chair, I appreciate the comment. I'll do my best to answer within the scope of being a public servant. What I would say to you is that there are a number of departments around town that are similar. ESDC has a similar structure. The machinery of government has been bu

Government Operations committee  I'm going from memory here, which is always a dangerous thing to do. I believe there were a number of “ministers of state” in the previous government. I don't have the list in front of me, so I would be going from memory, which, as I say, is probably a dangerous thing to do, but

Government Operations committee  I can't speak authoritatively for all of history, but what's unique about the current ministry is that they have mandate letters that were made public.

Government Operations committee  It's beyond the scope of what I can speak to in terms of this particular appearance. What I can tell you is clearly for this ministry there are mandate letters and they're public.

Government Operations committee  To my knowledge, that's correct.

Government Operations committee  I'll ask Ms. Boyle to add to that. I think historically the “minister of state” styling has been in the zone of assisting a minister. What the government tried to do when the ministry was stood up, though, right from the get-go, was establish, through the mandate letters, a spe

Government Operations committee  My understanding is that the goal is to pursue the one-tier cabinet philosophy and to ensure that each minister is equipped with all the tools.

Government Operations committee  I'm not sure that I'm following your question. I think the objective is to ensure that each minister has whatever tools he or she needs to do what's in the mandate letter.

Government Operations committee  I'm not sure I can speak on behalf of the government as a whole in terms of the answer to your question.

Government Operations committee  What I would say to you, and I'm doing my best to answer your question, is the—

Government Operations committee  Starting with the mandate letter, the objective is to try to give all the powers, duties, authorities, and delegations, you name it, to the individual. In terms of sign-offs, and it depends on what the sign-off is on, if somebody has something within his or her unique purview as

Government Operations committee  I'm not familiar with any such limit, no.

Government Operations committee  As I tried to explain a minute ago, it does a couple of things. We have a certain set of legal arrangements by which you can make adjustments in terms of powers, duties, functions, and delegations if you're a minister of state. What this statute does is it allows for similar powe

Government Operations committee  I apologize—