Thank you very much for the question.
Good evening, everyone.
I'd like to start by talking about the two time periods. We think that six months would be very tight. Although the work can begin before royal assent is granted, we won't know what's going to happen with the bill until it's passed by both Houses.
I'll talk about some of the things. I think Mr. Housefather has already mentioned a few of them. You have approved new definitions in terms of wrongdoing—in terms of abuse of authority, political interference and foreign interference. These are to be defined in regulations. We need to consult and define, and, as you know, as part of the regulatory process, there is consultation that typically occurs and that typically takes about a year, if not more, to do.
Through this committee, we've also determined that the Treasury Board has to develop some new policies in terms of the internal disclosure process. Again, there has to be development, consultation and approval of those by TB.
Third, the tribunal, as you know, is now going to be receiving complaints of reprisals directly from civil servants. They will have to assess their processes and define whether there are new functions, such as conducting investigations, prior to that in order to be able to call or make a decision on the case in front of them. That takes time and, as we discussed, potentially additional resources.
We have also agreed and you have also approved that more people can actually get disclosures from public servants. We will need to be able to develop training, train the people and make sure that senior officials who are already in place know about the changes that are coming. We'll also have to make sure we have the proper awareness material for all civil servants to be able to know what the changes are, where they need to go, and how they can be supported if they wish to make a disclosure.
Finally, in terms of the piece we discussed yesterday about data collection for the PSIC, if we were to do this in six months, they likely would not have the time to define their questions, put their questioners in, get the data and analyze it for their next annual report, so they would be in breach of the law regarding the six months, depending on when it happens and the timing of the tabling of the annual report. That could be a problem for them as well.
For all these reasons, in our view, six months would not be enough time to do a proper job and to be able to make sure the law was adequately implemented. We would require a longer time. Thank you.
