Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Committee on Accountability and Oversight has sent me a letter. The chair has written me a letter indicating that the committee is prepared and is supporting the suggestion made earlier this week to proceed with amendments to the Public Service Act to provide clarity to the roles and responsibilities of the political staff.
So we are in agreement with the committee. The chair has also indicated that he understands that a contract cannot be provided for reasons of privacy and so has asked for certain information to be provided to the committee. Mr. Chairman, we are preparing that information for the committee.
I want to point out, Mr. Chairman, that the information that the Member has asked for has in fact been provided on a number of occasions. There was a meeting with the Accountability and Oversight Committee last Friday, which I believe Mr. Roland was not present at, where the deputy minister, the most senior civil servant in this government, has said categorically:
"We cannot put in a contract anything that goes against an act or regulations of this government, that is, we cannot contract out of the Public Service Act and we have not done that."
The Member was not in the room when this information was being provided. Mr. Speaker, we have said consistently we have been advised by our staff that what Cabinet has done or is doing is consistent with the laws and regulations provided to this government. We have said that the contract does not refer to the individual in question as the deputy minister. The contract does not refer to the individual in question as the deputy minister. What the contract does is, in the section, refer to an appendices, which refers to deputy minister-type benefits. The contract says she is a chief of staff and that she is an executive assistant to the Premier and that is the function.
It says that where there is reference to deputy minister, it should read chief of staff, instead of DM, in regard to conflict of interest requirements. This is what we have already provided to Members and the response is being prepared right now to the chair of the Accountability and Oversight Committee, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.