Good afternoon. My name is Nathalie Caron, and I am the senior legislative counsel at the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel of the House of Commons. I was tasked with drafting the amendments for Bill C-4.
I'd like to start by saying that the work we do for you, always on an individual basis, is confidential and non-partisan. The discussions we have with you about amendments are not shared with anyone without your consent. By the way, when you have amendments, we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible so that we can begin work on the amendments immediately. You don't need to wait until you are fully prepared or you have all your instructions ready. As soon as you're ready to give us instructions for one or two amendments, you can contact us so we can get to work right away.
It can be a lengthy process, depending on how complex the request is—hence the importance of the instructions you give us. It helps us if you can explain the purpose of the measure and your objectives, as well as provide some context. Having that information is very helpful as we draft the amendments. Our role is really to turn your instructions into legislation that does what you want it to. Your explanations and objectives are essential to the analysis we carry out. We perform a legal analysis of your instructions, and if we identify any issues, we let you know. That way, we can try to find you other options. Then, we start drafting.
We produce a draft, which is reviewed and then sent to you for approval. Once approved, it is translated and revised. The process has a number of steps, which is why it's so important that you contact us as quickly as possible.
What I'd like to convey to you today is this: don't hesitate to contact us, even if you're not ready to provide instructions for your amendments. That way, we can at least start the discussion and explore solutions.