Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree with you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I am, very much.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't know.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, I'm going to be approximate and stand corrected by maybe the board. The staff from the board could possibly write to you, but I think we had at least 40 or 45 names. If I may also add to this, I did not anticipate—and I should have, but I didn't, and I accept responsibility for that—that the percentage of my recommendations of reappointments would drop so fast, because 35 names—In a normal year when everything's in place, you don't have more than 15 vacancies that come up for new appointment.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I'm finished.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I want to qualify your question. There were five vacant positions for new appointments. However, the government in power also had a file containing some 20 renewals, because it should not be forgotten that renewals also create vacant positions if they are not filled. So you have to be careful.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, it was advice to the minister, so under my oath when I was a chair, I cannot share the advice I gave to the minister. What were the issues? I can talk about what the issues were. The issue was governance from the point of view of two things. One, with the arrival of the Accountability Act and the new responsibility of deputy heads and heads of agencies, it became clear that you had to make sure that the accountability of the chair is meeting the standard and that the chair is not vulnerable with respect to the management of the board.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I could express it in my own terms, I respect the fact that the government can decide what they want on appointments and they can decide what they want in terms of selection. I came in and saw that the way to professionalize the institution was to divorce the selection from the appointment.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Morale is a big word. In a sense, you can have morale problems that are not directly related to the appointment process. I think morale issues are far greater than that. It affected members when they saw some of their colleagues not knowing their status, whether they were going to be reappointed or not, right up until the last day.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a tough transition.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Again, I want to make sure that no one—I'm not a victim of anything. I'm a professional, and you have to make decisions on your status when things happen. I didn't leave negatively. I'm very proud of what we did. I think the board is going to win by having a new chair, and the government will appoint the chair they want.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Furthermore— Mr. Chair, may I continue?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a lack of confidence or—we don't know.