Citizenship and Immigration committee  Furthermore, since he did the study on the asylum hearings conducted by videoconference, Mr. Ellis came to know our Board and the complex nature of the work and issues facing the decision-maker. In addition, Mr. Ellis believed that care had to be taken to ensure there was no politicization with regard to Board renewals.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can't speak for Mr. Ellis. I think you've read what he said in the letter. I think the big disappointment that occurred was the fact that—and I think I said it before—when we established those nine competencies that we were going to use for recruitment purposes, we also asked that every member who was in place be tested against those nine competencies.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No. If you look at the outside press we had four years ago vis-à-vis our board and our competencies and what we have today, there's better reporting and a better acceptance of that. As I said, we lost 300 years of experience that year. What he was trying to get at, I suppose, is that the average experience of the people you had in place was about 5.6 years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe that, in my last testimony—the date of which I don't remember—I was asked how many times I had met with Minister Solberg. I believe I answered at the time that I had done so eight or nine times. Mr. Solberg was always open and available to talk about the appointments question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That question makes me think. I had made a certain contribution, and I had completed the mandate assigned to me. I had finished. I was also nine months short of completing my five-year term. As I stated in the letter I sent to the minister, I was in the public service for 42 years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I appointed Mr. Ellis. In the Canadian legal community, Mr. Ellis has a good reputation—you are correct—and he always makes good speeches and has good arguments. I believe that no one is more qualified than he is in the area of tribunals. I had a lot of respect for him. I asked him to join our tribunal when we lost a member for health reasons.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, there was nothing about ethics. It has to do with me. I felt that I was getting to be a liability to the board and that it needed a new chair. I was not successful in getting the appointments.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Ten seconds?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me be quite clear about my leaving. I want to be very clear. There was never any pressure put on me by the government, the PMO, the Clerk, PCO, anybody. There was never any pressure put on me. I made the decision that it was best for the board, because we weren't getting appointments, regardless of the system; that the board was being penalized and they needed a new chair, and the government needed to appoint a new chair.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll tell you what I saw before I left on March 16. On March 16 when I left, it wasn't taking three years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it was about a year. Our average had increased to about a year.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, and you need the budget.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We've got to be careful how we define vacancies. To me, when a person is up for renewal, if they've been there for three years and the next renewal possible is five years, that is a vacancy. If they're not appointed, they're not appointed. So you have that kind of vacancy. Vacancies are created when people have reached their 10th year and we need to replace them with new recruits.