Information & Ethics committee  We'd certainly like to have someone in the position, but it's not our decision to make.

Information & Ethics committee  It depends what part of operations. On my end, within my units, everything can continue on right now.

Information & Ethics committee  As far as investigations go, yes, it would certainly be ideal if we had a commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  We were able to fulfill our mandate last year with a similar budget. We are only asking for a 2% increase this year. We do feel that we can continue to fulfill our mandate this year with this amount.

Information & Ethics committee  The surplus last year was basically due to salary. As I mentioned earlier, over 80% of our budget is for salaries. We had some delays in staffing last year. We had a little bit of a higher turnover rate last year, so we had to fill these vacant positions. That is mostly what ca

Information & Ethics committee  We will continue working, but we can't do anything until we have a commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  We can't conduct any investigations at this time, but we're doing the preparatory work. We do the research and analysis, but we can't initiate anything until we have a commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  Exactly.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Exactly.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  As I understand it, the commissioner has five years to initiate their work, their investigation, but they can look at facts or activities that took place up to 10 years in the past.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know of any. Melanie, do you know of any?

Information & Ethics committee  First off, I'd like to thank you for inviting us to appear before you today to talk about the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner's achievements over the past year as well as its plans for the upcoming year. My name is Sandy Tremblay and I'm director of co

Information & Ethics committee  In the past, there was a surplus every year. We didn't use all the funding we received. However, as Mr. Dion mentioned, last year, our surplus totalled just under 2%. We've used almost all of the funding that was allocated to us. The maturity of the Office must also be highlight