Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is mostly for the officials from the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, or perhaps for those from the Privy Council Office.
The minister claims that the power of the Prime Minister to review the reports seeks to protect classified information. Actually, the bill states that the information could be injurious to “national security, national defence or international relations”. Unless I'm mistaken, that definition seems much more vague to me. For instance, in terms of international relations, that might refer to information that puts the government in a tight spot.
Why was it written in that way? Why not simply specify that the Prime Minister could remove any classified information from the report?