Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First off, I want to address the comments made by Ms. Nash about the minister.
The minister is fully supportive of this provision in the BIA, so much so that I dispute wholeheartedly any comments made by Ms. Nash about the minister relying on the inspector general as his eyes and ears. Of course the minister has at his disposal a number of very professional and very well-trained people and agencies who provide him with information on an ongoing basis.
Now, the key functions of CSIS are to provide a certificate to the Minister of Public Safety each year attesting to the satisfaction with the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's report to the minister, and it conducts self-initiated reviews of CSIS activities. Okay. So all this legislation is doing is transferring that responsibility to SIRC, who already conduct self-initiated reviews of CSIS activities. Further, they also do investigations of complaints, which means they're actually doing more, but they're duplicating work that is being done in CSIS.
Through you, Chair, to the witnesses, have I encapsulated that duplication appropriately? And if not, would you please further explain the duplication that's going on presently?