Procedure and House Affairs committee  I certainly don't do that on behalf of government. Within my own department, with my own communications staff, as I said—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes...in my department.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't have that authority. I'm responsible for the communications policy. I think some of the legislative stuff would be handled elsewhere.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  From what I understand of this specific situation, there was a process mistake. A head of communications is responsible for the web content. Heads of communications around town would definitely understand the appropriate language to use in terms of parliamentary privilege.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely. “If passed”, “proposed changes”, and all those sorts of things. My understanding of this specific RCMP situation is that it didn't go through the appropriate level of approval.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I do. I think it's important to be open and transparent. There should be communications about bills, but they need to be very clearly positioned as “bills with proposed changes”, “if passed”, with all of that very clear language within them.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Not from us. No.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't know the details. I know they have changed their processes. They have ratcheted up what the approval levels have to be. I assume there have been—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  A higher level of approvals, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There's not a black and white rule around that. There's daily discussion with PCO between communications groups. It's usually the higher profile announcement, or something maybe with a very high dollar value, or if there are some sensitivities, then there's more of a coordination

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The PCO certainly has the expertise within their area. Maybe not in the communications group, but in the legislative and House planning area, they have the expertise on parliamentary procedure.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, I wasn't involved at the time when the issue first came about. In hindsight, I'd say if you look at that description, because of the confusion and the misinformation, it probably was not factual—to use one of the words from that requirement.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  From the discussions at this committee and what the RCMP talked about, I think there was some confusion—a lack of clarity.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think what should have been a fairly routine web posting would probably not have been shared with PCO.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I alluded to the values and ethics in my opening remarks. I think public servants are guided by that, and that includes something like respect for Parliament and democracy.