I can start from a Nova Scotia perspective.
The chief safety officer role has a lot of defined qualification and competency requirements. Typically that individual will be a 20-plus year individual with extensive offshore experience and extensive experience at managing human resources, the people who would be assisting him and advising him.
That individual is selected through a rigorous procedure that we have in place at the board staff level. A recommendation would go to the board to appoint the chief safety officer, and the board would make that appointment.
I think in the 25-odd years our board has been in existence, we've only had four or five chief safety officers. They tend to stay in that position for an extended period of time.
Actually, I myself was a chief safety officer previously. I only relinquished that position when I became the chief executive officer.
In terms of independence, first of all, in terms of any authorization that is issued for any work or activity in the offshore, the chief safety officer must be consulted. The chief safety officer is obligated to consider safety in its entirety and to make a recommendation to the board, or the chief executive officer on behalf of the board, as to whether an authorization should be issued, yes or no. I think in the 12 years I've been at the board, the chief safety officer's recommendation has been accepted in every case.
Once an authorization has been issued, the chief safety officer then has the ultimate authority. As has been discussed, if there is an operation that is unsafe and could cause serious bodily injury, the chief safety officer has the authority, as does the safety officer, to shut down the work site. Once the chief safety officer has issued the order, or validated the order issued by a safety officer, that is only challengeable in the court. It's not reviewable by me, as chief executive officer, and it's not reviewable by the board.