Chair, and Mr. Richards, the process was very simple but very well done. We were versed beforehand on one of the initial meetings when we all met. Everybody from Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick, to everybody else, we all met. We were all given a nice binder to read and studied what it constituted. We all read it . We all had time to ask any questions of the chair of the independent council, the three independent ones. We were given enough information to study and go through it to see if there was something that stood out and we were not comfortable with. First of all, I should say that.
Secondly, when the process took place, we were sent, in confidentiality, all the information, which was only read by us. If I had a question about something, I was allowed to call up my counterpart, Anne Giardini, and have a conversation with her about it, but I didn't have to because it was quite well put together. The flow chart worked really well.
There were a couple of questions I had at first about the computer when I wasn't able to figure it out. I was able to get somebody on the phone in Ottawa, and they were able to guide me through the process right off the bat.
Then once we met, once we had made our decisions, we all sat—British Columbia and the national committee—and went through the process. We went through each and every name, basically, and had points, and discussed. It was a full-on, full-day conversation within this process. The conversation took place on why we felt this was a great qualification, what we felt about it, and we had some conversations between each other. The chairperson asked us enough questions, saying things like, “Why do you think this person is qualified?”
They were also asking us why we were choosing who we were choosing. Anne Giardini chose so many, and I chose so many. Then we convened on that again.
It was a very thorough process that took place. Again, we were aware of what was required of us and we wanted to deliver the best candidate possible, or the best five candidates possible. When we walked away from that room, we did not know which individual it was going to be at the end. It depended on the PMO basically to make that decision. We had done our job of making sure that we presented the top five we felt qualified as such.