I'll be glad to do that.
As I recall, Bill C-11 was tabled in the fall of 2020. The government has announced that a successor will be tabled in 2022, perhaps before the summer.
I thought it was important that the OPC start thinking about how it would be organized to inherit new responsibilities that the earlier Bill C-11 would have given the OPC. We don't know what the new bill will say, but there's a chance, of course, that it will have many elements of Bill C-11. The idea is to get ahead of the curve and think about how we would exercise these responsibilities, so we're not caught off guard if the transition period after the adoption of the bill is shorter than we would hope.
Among the responsibilities that Bill C-11 would have given the OPC—and we think it's likely this will continue to be the case—is order-making. It would be subject to appeal before a tribunal, which we think is unnecessary...but still order-making. That would require, we think, the setting up of an adjudication branch of arbiters or adjudicators. Right now, we have investigators who make recommendations, but with new legislation that has order-making powers, we would likely need to have adjudicators somewhat distant from investigators to ensure the fairness of processes.
That is one area we looked at.
The bill also provided for a review function of the code of practice.
We have looked at all the new authorities Bill C-11 would have given the OPC, and we have given some thought to how we would exercise these responsibilities.