Fraser to PCO: Put the comm plans down and nobody gets hurt

The relevant bit, from yesterday’s liveblog:

12:38:55 PM
David Christopherson just asked a very good question that produced an even better answer from Fraser - the money quote, I would suggest. There are certain statutory conditions that apply to all officers of Parliament that give an “inappropriate role” to a minister or the government itself. “My communications strategies aren’t going to PCO,” she quips.

Wait, why does PCO get anyone’s communications strategy? That seems odd.

Anyway, Christopherson is widely supportive of her position and offers the services of this humble committee, if necessary, to force the issue in Parliament. Yes, bow, that sudden breeze was a shot.

12:47:45 PM
Borys wants to know about that PCO policy too, the one that requires officers of Parliament to turn over their respective communications strategy. Specifically, when did that come into effect? She doesn’t really answer the question. It’s a draft policy and she’s not sure if was part of the old policy.

And… that’s it. Huh. Definitely worth following up on that, I’d say.