Procedure and House Affairs committee  Let me say that the criteria that have been laid out are very clear. We cannot deviate from that. That's our mandate. We would look at every single individual based on his or her merits and contributions. Clearly, if they have been considered worthy candidates by their communities, that would perhaps be reflected in their letters of reference, in their achievements, but we certainly would have to treat equally all individuals who apply in the second phase, purely on the basis of the criteria that are before us, which are very clearly set out in the terms of reference.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for your kind words. Let me say in conclusion that I am very honoured to serve Canada. I am very committed to this country. This is a great country with a great democracy, and I am very privileged to have a chance to meet with all of you. I would like to thank you all for your very kind questions, for your comments, for your thoughtfulness, and for the opportunity to engage in this way.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think if you look at the criteria that I set out, one of the things that I think is important is the fact that we want to ensure, at least through this process, that there is representation of minorities: of linguistic minorities, ethnic minorities, first nations, indigenous people.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think there were two things at the University of Alberta, certainly as president, that I focused on. At UBC, I was vice-president, research, so I had a very different portfolio. As president, there were a couple of things that we were working very hard on. First of all, we worked to significantly increase the access for aboriginal students.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would say that much of our advice was indeed taken very seriously, and there were many occasions on which the advice was implemented.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  One of the criteria that we have been tasked with is to ensure that we have a balance of candidates. We have the issue of gender, ethnic, linguistic, minority, and indigenous peoples, but also breadth of expertise in order to have a well-functioning Senate. As long as we can ensure that there is a cross-section of people with significant differences amongst them in terms of their professional and personal qualities, I think we would hopefully be able to address that issue.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I served on the Science, Technology and Innovation Council for a few years. Our role there was essentially responding to advice from the Minister of Industry Canada as well as creating a report called “State of the Nation” in which we attempted to comprehensively provide the minister and the Government of Canada with a picture of where Canada stood relative to other countries on a variety of measures.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  MaRS is a technology transfer incubator organization in Ontario. It's located in Toronto. It was started off by John Evans, who is a very distinguished Canadian and who passed away recently, sadly. MaRS stood for medical and related sciences district. Their role is to take discoveries that come out of universities and help transfer them into small companies; to take small companies that are in Ontario and help them grow; and to have access to talent in management and capital, and ideas that would help companies grow.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. I was very fortunate, because first of all, I grew up in Sri Lanka. I spent a couple of years in England as a child, and when my father was studying I was in California for two years, and of course, in Canada. I consulted for about a hundred companies around the world when I was a professor in engineering.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  First of all, let me thank you for your very kind words about my achievements. I'm truly humbled and grateful for your comments. Let me make two points on this, first on accountability. I'd like to say that I've spent much of my career, particularly the last 10 or 15 years, honing my skills on accountability, such as how I held people accountable within the University of Alberta.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll make two points. First of all, we are currently working on our report, so I can't speak to it, because it's by no means complete. But let me point to the website and the form that the organizations were asked to fill out. Perhaps that form will give you a better understanding.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Our report is not complete so it's difficult for me to comment, because I don't know what we will collectively end up with, but let me say that our obligation according to the terms of reference is to provide statistics to the Prime Minister. Beyond that, I think it's too early for me to make any kind of commentary until we as a group have met and decided what we're going to do.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At this point I can say our process is well under way. Until the process is concluded, it might be best if I left that answer until we can finally give you some sense of timing.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, we sent out the same request to a large number of organizations.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would say not directly, other than developing a very good understanding of the role of the public service in Canada; a good understanding of the long-term trends that Canada is facing as a country; and the importance of modernizing, perhaps many of our systems in support of government—everything from how we assess merit and so on in terms of public servants.