Not at all. It's really a rather different subject.
Since I've been Minister of Finance, we've appointed a couple of panels that have developed some very important public policy in Canada: the children's fitness tax credit--which hundreds of thousands of Canadians took advantage of this year, I'm told--and the registered disability savings plan. The three experts who served on the children's fitness tax credit panel and the three experts who served on the panel dealing with registered disability savings plans were each paid $1.
The challenge is that when we appoint people, as we have recently--for example, the members of the Godsoe panel on international taxation and members of the Hockin panel on securities regulation--not all people who might be good people to have can afford to give up the hours and days that they're being asked to give up in order to perform this kind of public service.
This is a provision found in other federal department legislation. The ministers for public safety, industry, and social development have long had such authority. That's why it's in the bill--so that the Minister of Finance will have similar authority.