Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I explained, these are two totally separate processes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I want to thank the member for his question, Madam Chair. I referred to the Toronto event because the member asked whether my office had any contact with Mr. Hunka. These are two completely separate processes. As I explained, the invitation for Toronto came from our office, at the request of the Prime Minister's Office and based on the recommendation of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Parliamentary protocol is in charge here on the Hill, but we do upstairs—they call it the “PM's corridor”—where the PMO and the cabinet room—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, absolutely not.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  On the scale of that incident, it was zero.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I want to thank the member for his question. As said earlier, the office of protocol has no oversight over the list of guests invited to addresses to Parliament. The office helps process requests submitted to the parliamentary protocol office and contributes to two sections of this list, including the section listing the members of the delegation visiting Ottawa who are taking part in the event.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. This is true for members of a diplomatic corps visiting Ottawa.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We simply respond to the request from the parliamentary protocol office, which provides the name of the ambassador or high commissioner being invited. We aren't involved in the details of the seating arrangements.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Not at all.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right. The parliamentary protocol office can also tell us the names of the people being invited. It then arranges the invitations. We don't invite the people.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It consults us with regard to the invitation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We sent Mr. Hunka the invitation to the Toronto event. I think that you have seen it. It was subject to an access to information request. Basically, it was an email sent to his personal address. No one replied. We had no contact other than sending this invitation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The requests come from the client, such as Rideau Hall, the Prime Minister's Office, or any of the offices of our ministers, our three ministers at Global Affairs. In this case, I think that the Prime Minister's Office sent us the name based on a suggestion from the public. I think that the Ukrainian Canadian Congress suggested it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You're looking ahead. That's the point of this study. Therefore, again, I would come back to the different levels. At some point down the road, there will be another visit with another address to Parliament, and if I'm still in this job, I might get very nervous at the thought of that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I, fortunately, have numbers. This question comes up often. It varies from year to year. Sometimes there could be an election. Sometimes there could be a pandemic. I have the 2023 numbers just to give you a sense. We had 33 incoming visits. Those were state, working, ministerial, official, private and guests of government visits.