Public Safety committee  We are studying all of the aspects and following the development of the committee of parliamentarians. We are meeting with CSIS and CSE with respect to how they're preparing and, to the extent that we can, we are keeping abreast of their work in developing the new authorities that they may have.

Public Safety committee  In terms of whether or not we have adequate resources, the transitional clauses in the bill are quite clear. What we have in terms of the commissioner, the employees, and the appropriation from Parliament all transition to become the intelligence commissioner and his office. What are the requirements?

Public Safety committee  If you're on holiday in Scotland, CSE would be able to intercept a communication involving you only if they were targeting a foreign entity abroad. All the other privacy protections that apply would be there, and that's what the commissioner would be looking at. On a question like that, you may want to ask for more detail from CSE itself.

National Defence committee  We have access to the agreements between the Five Eyes. CSE has shared those with us, so we're able to see what in fact they have agreed to. Our reviews will look at whether CSE is complying with it and what assurances they are obtaining from their partners that they are complying with those long-standing agreements.

National Defence committee  If there were a question raised in an agreement that the commissioner believed compromised privacy or something, he would make a point of that.

National Defence committee  There was a recommendation that the commissioner made to the minister to provide direction to CSE regarding his expectations for protection of privacy with respect to information that is shared with CSE's partners. We are monitoring that in terms of CSE's development. Obviously, CSE will have to be the one to take that direction from the minister.

National Defence committee  Rather than stating whether or not there have been improvements, the reviews we conduct on CSE's relationship with its partners look at it from the Canadian perspective and Canadian laws. The agreement is that the Five Eyes partners will respect the laws of the country in terms of privacy.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Commissioner. Part of our task in the commissioner's office is to ensure that we are staying abreast and up to date on what is happening within CSE. We do that through the reviews we're conducting, through briefings we request from CSE in specific areas, and through demonstrations of particular systems we want to examine, whether or not we can determine that there may be risks to compliance or to privacy in those systems or in the activity.

National Defence committee  The latest departmental plan for the office, which we're required to submit to Treasury Board, indicates that the commissioner will be requesting an increase in the resource base. That, of course, is not a large amount of money, but the commissioner frequently asks me if I have enough resources to conduct an adequate review of CSE.

National Defence committee  I have a point of clarification, sir. For the classified reports that the commissioner signs that go to the minister, the annual report is made up of an unclassified version of those classified reports. Recommendations that will be included in a classified report to the minister, who is responsible for CSE and who can tell CSE to implement them, if there is some disagreement....

National Defence committee  If I could, Chair, the reviews that we conduct.... The questions that you're asking would be well directed to CSE to provide—

National Defence committee  We will review the activities of CSE. The commissioner has no jurisdiction, of course, to review the activities of NSA or GCHQ, or the Australian or New Zealand equivalents. But we do have the ability to ensure that whatever activity CSE is conducting and the interceptions they are conducting, comply with the laws of Canada and with the internal policies and agreements that they have.

National Defence committee  We have the same—

National Defence committee  If I might respond, that would be up to the American inspectors general, our counterparts there. Our focus is CSE's activities and the information that CSE shares with its counterpart, the National Security Agency in the United States. The commissioner's office has conducted an in-depth review several years ago on the sharing of SIGINT information.

National Defence committee  First of all—