Information & Ethics committee  I want to raise one point related to Mr. Tilson's question. There was one case subsequent to Ms. Sgro in which we retained counsel to conduct an interview, but it was outside the country. So there was one case. If you drill down in our website, there is one contract we issued to

Information & Ethics committee  That's correct.

Information & Ethics committee  I can't say off the top of my head, although it is in the annual report. I believe we handled 1,149 cases in the reporting year. If I may, looking at it another way, we have 1,350 full-time public office holders--clients, if you like--plus you, the 308 members of Parliament. So

Information & Ethics committee  Well, 755 cases is a 12-year average.

Information & Ethics committee  That's a 12-year average. In the last two years, it hasn't been that. It's been about double that. One year it was 1,400, and last year it was about 1,100.

Information & Ethics committee  If I may, that was in our initial year--our transition year--and a bit into the second. We were getting services from Industry Canada, where the old office was housed, for information technology and so on.

Information & Ethics committee  We had to pay for those services.

Information & Ethics committee  Not necessarily.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely, they did, but we retained counsel. Again, the office is a separate employer. We cannot get legal advice from the Department of Justice, and we do not get legal advice from counsel to Parliament. So we have to, on our own, get legal advice. Up to this point in time,

Information & Ethics committee  I'm sorry...?

Information & Ethics committee  To this point in time, they have done only one interview, and that was during the Sgro inquiry. Subsequent to that, we've had individuals within our office conducting the interviews.

Information & Ethics committee  We have some senior managers who conduct them. I don't have it off the top of my head, but we've had a senior manager conduct interviews. I myself have conducted some interviews. We've had some people who are at the ET-05 level assist us and be able to conduct.... That position i

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I'd like to just make a comment. Your question is in relation to the information that's available. Earlier I was talking about our budgetary process in our system, and it was indicated that as of September of last year we put up on our website our full budgetary expenditur

Information & Ethics committee  As of April 1, there has been $44,000 spent just on obtaining legal opinions or legal advice.

Information & Ethics committee  Seven cases.