Government Operations committee  No. I would say for the ministers' offices and for the GICs, the story is very similar in that it was identified that we had a funding pressure, that it was costing more than what our budget was for those areas. Then the process for the GIC funding was changed several years ago,

Government Operations committee  What it's for is salaries, to pay our employees who do this work.

Government Operations committee  It's for that combination of the different pieces. It's for all of the positions done under the open and transparent process that we now have for GIC appointments.

Government Operations committee  It wasn't about less need. Again, I'll take you back to—

Government Operations committee  I will just explain. Generally, from a budgeting perspective, what's in the departmental plan is approved funding. We can't say that we think we need more money and then go ahead and put that in the departmental plan. That's just not the process. We knew—

Government Operations committee  I believe the nominee spoke to this at committee recently. As I think I mentioned earlier, it can be a combination of professional services, salary, travel, communications or engagement-type activities. It really is up to the debates commissioner to decide.

Government Operations committee  I'm not a machinery of government expert, but right now, he's not been appointed and therefore has no formal authority. If he were to say, “I want to spend money on X, Y, Z”, he would have no ability to sign for that money.

Government Operations committee  I'm saying the opposite, sir. It's not established yet.

Government Operations committee  There is no debates commission officially launched as of today. Until we formally establish the entity and create it, there is no entity. Right now, it's a nominee. As I said, we're working on all the final authorities. I think it will coincide very well with the timing of the

Government Operations committee  I don't have that answer, but I would say that in the coming weeks, someone will be confirmed in that position.

Government Operations committee  I don't know the formal process for confirmation.

Government Operations committee  That's correct.

Government Operations committee  Once a debates commissioner is established, they'll have flexibility as to how they want to use that funding. It could be through professional services, and there's a mechanism to do that. It could be through hiring outside of the public service. It could be from secondments from

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. One of the hallmarks of this has been the independence, and part of that independence is the ability to decide how best to use the resources to that end.

Government Operations committee  We've submitted a draft Treasury Board submission to Treasury Board Secretariat. We hope to get approval in the next month, as soon as we possibly can. I believe a nominee for the position of debates commissioner has been named; it's not formally concluded, and we will do our b