Thank you for the question.
Before I answer, there is one thing I want to say. In my opening statement I indicated that we felt the fix was in when I talked about Mr. Harrison's report. I didn't mean to say that Mr. Harrison was in cahoots with anyone. I regretted it as soon as I said it. He at all times was very honourable and honest with our group when we met with him. My concern was that from what we had heard from the minister's office and other sources, and given the terms of reference of the report, we felt we knew where it was going. It turned out that we were right.
To answer your question, things improved considerably during the time of the advisory panel I was part of. I don't take sole credit for that. Mr. Fleury is due most of the credit for bringing this new system in. We've heard from the staff of the IRB that the people who were selected and appointed to the IRB have proven to be extremely good members. They have required less training than previous appointees. They have required less mentoring once they were finished their training. And they have been found to be ready to handle the responsibilities of a board member much quicker than other appointees. So yes, the system is working. We put forward extremely qualified people and the results have borne that out.
If you bring in patronage again, of course some very good people will come forward, but we can't be sure of that.