This is going to be somewhat difficult, because the questions were interim.
First, what are your internal timelines for providing the first decision letter as to whether you're going to pursue a complaint? What are the timelines for providing a decision on an appeal, as to whether you're going to pursue a complaint if an appeal is sought? Also, what are your service levels on the overall investigation? A lot of foreign acts stipulate those within the legislation, but ours doesn't.
My second question relates to parallel investigations. Within the act it seems that exclusive jurisdiction is being given. What sections of the act should we be concerning ourselves with if we want to grant non-exclusive jurisdiction to PSIC in relation to investigations of complaints and their right to pursue parallel investigations? Are there some pitfalls that you want to point out in respect of those?
With respect to the definition of “wrongdoing”, we've heard from witnesses that gross mismanagement is too high a standard, that you guys should be allowed to investigate a negligence-level standard. How do you view that internally? What type of discretion do you have around determining whether something arises to the level of gross versus not, and have you ever denied an investigation on the basis that it was negligent but not grossly negligent in terms of the management?
On destruction of evidence, how does destruction of evidence fall within the definition of “wrongdoing”? In other jurisdictions, destruction of evidence is a separate ground and actually is a basis on which a disclosure to the public can be maintained. Presumably there's some way that's captured.
You'll see the blues and get all these questions in written form, so you don't have to scramble.
Within the definition of “protected disclosures”, we've heard some evidence around a duty to protect and support. Some of the evidence we've received with respect to a duty to protect and support was that the department that's engaged in the disclosure, or even the overall organization such as yours that supervises the regime, would make sure that people who are witnesses to wrongdoing are actually being protected in supporting you. It's like standing back and monitoring their mental health and the way they're being treated within the public service. Could that duty be inserted easily into the act, or would it be too complicated to add such a duty because it might interact with too many sections of the act? I'd like your views on it, as experts on the act.
I'm not sure where this next question will go, unfortunately, so I might have follow-up questions with respect to it. I want to understand from Mr. Lampron the difference between an investigation that would occur under this act and an investigation that would occur if someone just went directly to the RCMP with respect to any of the matters that they consider to be a sufficiently grave form of wrongdoing. It would seem to me that this act provides much more protection to that type of whistle-blower, yet I don't understand why that would be the case.
Don't we want to protect anyone who is bearing witness in the public interest to wrongdoing? I want to have your thoughts on that to further questions, but seeing as there is no time, maybe we will engage in some type of email chain on this.