Thank you, and thank you to the witnesses.
As someone who has been sitting on this committee, we have had a pretty intense schedule, and we're meeting long hours and so on to hear from a broad range of witnesses. Obviously you were invited as a witness so that we could get the benefit of your input and testimony. I guess I find it a bit alarming when people say they're not being consulted when this is a part of that consultation. We have had the benefit of years of study on these types of issues. This is a well thought out bill, and we're working in a way to hear from witnesses. This committee is working very hard to take the inputs we're getting from witnesses.
Is there any general clear-cut recommendation that you have for this committee? I noticed, as Mr. Martin has already stated, the recommendations that are in your executive summary would involve a great deal of time. I think Canadians are saying we'll never achieve perfection. I know that, and I don't think any of us are under any illusion that you can ever be perfect, but we want to take a good product.
I noted with interest your comment that Bill C-11 did not have teeth, and that's one thing about Bill C-2--it does have teeth. It has teeth that empower officers of Parliament to do their job better and it has teeth to protect whistle-blowers from reprisal, and those are some of the necessary steps that we have to take as responsible members of Parliament to further accountability in our country. I would rather move forward with something that is positive. These types of studies have been going on for years, and will continue to go on, and we can benefit from them.
I'll take your comments on that, but also in your executive summary it says:
Just because accountability is a fundamental democratic value does not mean that there can never be too much accountability. However, excessive and burdensome accountability requirements can detract from responsiveness, innovation and efficiency.
I'm wondering if you can also comment a bit on that. Can you give some specific examples? Can you shed a bit of light on what that means?