Justice committee  I don't think I should give a legal opinion. I can read the statute. You can read the statute. There's a provision for the response in six months. That happened. There's no provision for any further response.

Justice committee  Well, the reason is that there was a constitutional process that came about because of the disaster that preceded, which resulted in the P.E.I. reference being necessary in the first place. The constitutional process was to appoint an independent, high-quality commission to work independently, not as an arbitration group but in the public interest, to hear input from the public, from the participants, and to come up with recommendations that, except with very good reason, would be accepted by Parliament to set judicial salaries.

Justice committee  Mr. Chairman, could I just respond briefly? We looked at a variety of the best comparisons we could find, from government, from deputy ministers, from the heads of senior boards and commissions—some of them judicial—and from what the incomes were across the country in private practice.

Justice committee  If I could just add this, Mr. Chair, our report was based on research that we did ourselves and submissions from the government and the judiciary, and considerable public input into and knowledge of what we were doing. The report speaks for itself. We worked very hard on it. It is really for this committee and perhaps, ultimately, the courts to say whether the government's response, both in its content and timing, meets constitutional requirements.