Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all of you for appearing here today.
I unfortunately had to be in my riding, so I wasn't here for the minister's presentation, but I had a chance to review the blues.
I still have some concerns I'd like to raise in the areas of independence of the new commission and the investigations and access to information.
Let me start by talking about some restrictions, which seem quite significant, on the ability of the new commission to undertake studies.
You said that one of the positive things is that it can do more proactive studies without waiting for complaints. Yet there seem to be three big restrictions in the law. First, it has to have the resources available, implying that the old work of reviewing individual complaints takes precedence over the new power. Second, the new commission cannot undertake any investigation if there's already an investigation under way by any other government entity. And third is that the new commission would be required to suspend any investigation at the request of the commissioner. The word used in the section is “shall” suspend rather than “may” suspend.
To me, these seem like some very severe restrictions on the independence of the new commission. I wonder if you have any comments in those areas.