Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madame Chair. If I may, I think that's an intriguing question. The order in council that created the secretariat and the commission in the first instance, as I pointed out in my opening comments, was related to the fact that in Bill C-2 at that point the reference to the creation of the commission was through a change to the Salaries Act.

Government Operations committee  If I may, Madam Chair, that is my understanding of the commission's role. As I indicated in my opening statement, both the order in council that originally created it and Bill C-2 effectively give the commission an oversight role. The aim is to ensure there are processes in place that lead to the consideration of people who are qualified to do the job.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Madam Chair, we did what we could as professionally and efficiently as possible in the time available. I'm talking about the past, because I've not been involved in this for the last several months, as I was appointed elsewhere, but I believe we did very effective groundwork.

Government Operations committee  I'm told the government is in the process of considering the naming of commissioners. The orders in council to create the commission are in place. It's a question that would need to be answered by the government. I think the secretariat work that we did is in sufficient order to be able to move quickly so that the commission can begin its job.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, the objective is to ensure that the process is transparent. The individuals whose names are suggested to the governor in council must be able to fulfil the role that we want to give to them. This is a process based on a decision made by the governor in council. The appointments are made by the ministers.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, the view that it is for nothing is not the view that I would share.

Government Operations committee  First of all, we were asked to be in place, and I think it's entirely appropriate to pay people. The bulk of this was salaries. Second, we did an extensive consultation with heads of agencies, crown corporations, first of all to find out from them what the current practice is, and secondly, to seek guidance on the eventual development of a code of practice, which is mentioned in the appropriate legislation.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, the secretariat remained in place and we undertook through discussions with the Privy Council to continue to develop the support for an eventual commission.

Government Operations committee  There are no commissioners today.

Government Operations committee  The secretariat is at the moment comprised of one individual, who will be moving to another appointment on Monday.

Government Operations committee  We have a report.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Ms. Thibault, for your questions. I believe there were two of them. I will begin with your question regarding the Immigration and Refugee Board. Following discussions with the clerk, we were asked to define the board's mandate and review its procedures. The mandate had been approved by the minister at that time, and we did an analysis in order to ascertain whether effective changes could be made to the procedure implemented in 2004.

Government Operations committee  That's correct.

Government Operations committee  One individual, who will be moving to another position as of the first of next week.

Government Operations committee  Madam Chair, following the event to which the honourable member refers, I was asked to continue to work, from a bureaucratic point of view, to do the things necessary that would support an eventual commission. The things we did, I laid out in a report to the Treasury Board advisory committee.