Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague from the Canadian Alliance, the hon. member for Kootenay—Columbia. This is something which I am extremely concerned about and which has to do with transparency. I am sure that my colleague will be very sensitive to my question. Perhaps he raised it in his speech. I am referring to transparency with respect to the appointment of the branch's head and to the council that will be established to run the Library and Archives of Canada, which will report to the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
I would like to raise his awareness and let him know that in Quebec, the Quebec National Library Act provides for a different type of appointments, while these still require the approval of the Quebec communications minister.
For example, five people, including the chairperson, are appointed by the government on the recommendation of the minister of culture and communications, but only after consultations with the library community, the publishing community, writers' associations and the universities. Three of these members have to be librarians. One of them has to be a conservation expert and another an exhibitions expert. Two other members are appointed by the City of Montreal, and two are library users, one of whom must be a Montreal resident because the library is located in Montreal. Finally, they must be elected by their peers, in accordance with the library's regulations.
Quebec used legislation to ensure that appointments also included people from the community. Everyone knows that the skills required on such a board belong to people from the community, and these are not partisan appointments. I could give a few examples of partisan appointments on certain boards of directors, and the member for Kootenay—Columbia knows what I am talking about.
There could also have been provisions regarding potential conflicts of interest within these boards of directors. Again, the legislation to establish the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec contains a very specific provision on potential conflicts of interest between members of the board of directors who have an interest in a business and their employees or those of the library.
So there is a whole process that is provided for in the Quebec legislation.
I would like to ask my colleague from Kootenay—Columbia what he thinks of this flaw in the bill before us. Should amendments be made so that the bill better reflects the interests of the public?