Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 19th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Mr. Owen, did you want more time? Are you finished?

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I'm finished. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

We could share your time with one of your other colleagues. You still have four minutes left.

Okay, we have no one from the government side who wants to ask any questions.

Sorry, Mr. Preston, I did not see your hand.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I forgot that I was here by myself.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

You are in fact—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

—alone again, naturally.

Mr. Preston.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a couple of small questions. I may not take my whole time either.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

That's fair.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

In this deck of papers, you've provided us with the commissioner's caution letter, or a sample thereof. You've also provided us with a list of how many have gone out and under what terms.

The caution letter itself is not a public document. It would be between you and the person it was sent to. Unless they decided to share it, this is not a public document in any way. No one would know if someone had received one.

[William Corbett]

That's correct. In some cases we perhaps copy it to the other party to a transaction.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

If there was a complainant in the—

[William Corbett]

No, we wouldn't copy that to a complainant.

For example, if there was a transfer of money to a candidate before the time...we might advise both parties. But otherwise, you're correct. It's not a publicly available document.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

If someone had brought a situation to your attention and you decided to use a caution letter, would you let the person who brought the complaint forward know that?

[William Corbett]

We would advise that a caution letter had gone out, but not the letter itself.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Not the letter itself. So people would know that was the resolution you had chosen.

[William Corbett]

Yes.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Okay.

The other thing you mentioned in your opening speech is that you were busy training contract investigators this week. You mentioned there are some 37 across Canada.

[William Corbett]

There are five or six in headquarters and the rest are across Canada.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

They're contract investigators, so they don't work full-time for the commissioner.

[William Corbett]

They work when we have a case for them.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Can you give me a fairly short description of who these people would be? Are they private investigators and they ask to be a contract investigator with you?

[William Corbett]

They're generally retired policemen with 20 to 30 years of experience. Most of them are former RCMP.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

All right. Do you search them out, or do they search you out?

[William Corbett]

There are organizations of retired policemen. Individuals who are about to retire and who are looking for work can register with them. I believe we consult an organization that can provide us with names.