Thank you, Mr. Chair
I'm going to read the amendment into the record.
It states that Bill C-36, in clause 2, be amended by adding after line 4 on page 2 the following:
(4.1) The Minister shall establish a search committee to prepare a list of no more than five qualified candidates for consideration by the Governor in Council when making an appointment under subsection (1).
( 4.2) The search committee shall be composed of between 8 and 12 persons, each of whom are knowledgeable about the duties of the Chief Statistician and the mandate of Statistics Canada, and may include the following:
(a) any former Clerk of the Privy Council;
(b) any former Governor of the Bank of Canada;
(c) any former Chief Statistician; and
(d) the President of the Statistical Society of Canada.
(4.3) No member of the search committee shall receive remuneration for the performance of their duties or be reimbursed for any expenses incurred in the course of performing those duties.
This amendment comes from the former chief statistician's suggestions that we heard in testimony before this committee. It is to provide the minister not only just the recipe for naming the chief statistician, but also the process. For those reasons I'm moving this amendment and I believe it would be a value-added part of the legislation. It would also take away some of the adverse issues we've had over the last number of years related to appointments.