Mr. Chair, I wouldn't want to give a number, but I would say it's not infrequent that we have people who want to serve on boards, Crown corporations, agencies or tribunals who have obviously some knowledge and who have, as the committee has mentioned, the merit and education and skills and experience to serve well in these roles. It happens not infrequently. I would say that in this case, given the nature of the legislation, it makes it challenging to manage the conflict.
We do have other extremes, I would say, where the requirements in the legislation are so restrictive that we have had a very difficult time finding qualified candidates. The one that we've worked on most recently would have been the Canadian Energy Regulator. You can't hold interest, essentially, in any energy field, which makes it very, very difficult, because those are often areas of investment in portfolios, for example.
To the honourable member's question, yes, it's not uncommon. We work very closely with the commissioner's office, respecting, of course, the line between their role and ours. I would say that at the end of the day, it is up to the Ethics Commissioner to make a ruling and decide if an individual can serve in a role, depending on their background and their financial interests. We have, I think, quite a good partnership in terms of working with them on making those decisions.
