Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to comment upon the issue of fairness when it comes to appointments and the issue of ethics. As members may know, I introduced in the House a private member's bill on a code of ethics for parliamentarians. A key part of that bill involved the whole concept of an ethics counsellor who would be independent and who would be accountable to parliament, not to the Prime Minister or to any minister of the House.
That to me is an essential part of the democratic system, that we have accountability, as well as openness, transparency and fairness. That is something which has to be built into this legislation as well.
The hon. member was quite right in pointing out a concern about how the appointments will be made. I would certainly support the idea that these appointments should be made in a manner that will be fair, open and transparent and will be accountable to the people who will be the end users of this new service.
I commend the hon. member for making that point. In my remarks I mentioned some of the groups that had written to me expressing their wish to be involved in the governing council. I mentioned the palliative care community wanting to have representation on the governing council. There are many other groups which are concerned about this as well.
These are the details we will be bringing forward at committee stage to try to bring forward amendments to ensure that kind of fairness.