Thank you very much for your question.
This study was prompted by a request from the chair of the IRB, Mr. Fleury. He appeared before the committee a couple of times in the last little while and raised this. He pointed out that it has been two years since the previous guidelines were put into place, and he felt that after a couple of years there should be a study.
We've asked the Public Appointments Commission to have a look at this and focus on timeliness, ensuring that we have the broadest possible cross-section of the Canadian public represented as panellists on the IRB, and of course ensuring that these people are competent and can do the job.
Obviously we don't want the kinds of problems that arose under the previous system, with the fallout we continue to see today. Mr. Bourbonnais was one of the people who was appointed under the previous system, and we all know the problems that created.
So being merit-based is key, but this is really prompted by Mr. Fleury wanting to have a review after two years.