The government officials who attended the meeting in Vancouver on January 6 and 7 are as follows:
Robert Blackburn, assistant deputy minister, policy sector; Cameron Dawson, director, citizenship and integration policy division; Richard Nolan, registrar of Canadian citizenship; Sandra Souchotte, acting director, promotion and corporate identity public affairs branch; Naheed Israeli, senior policy advisor, citizenship and integration policy division.
Their level of knowledge of the dossier and their collective responsibility for the eventual advice to the government meant these were the most appropriate officials to work with the writers and to brief them on the many considerations involved in the development of a draft oath of citizenship and a strategy for a citizenship declaration.
The names of the authors and their province of residence are as follows:
Arlette Cousture, Québec; John Gray, British Columbia; Joy Kogawa, British Columbia; Simon Langlois, Québec; Susan Musgrave, Ontario; Nino Ricci, Ontario; Paul Savoie, Ontario; Alain Stanké, Québec; Wilbur Sutherland, Ontario; Rudy Wiebe, Alberta.
Seventeen thousand dollars was spent on this meeting, excluding the participation of the registrar of Canadian citizenship and the public affairs representatives, the cost for which came out of their respective operating budgets.
The following is an itemized breakdown of expenditures. Category amounts are approximate:
Question No. 153-