Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It would be during the negotiation process.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Basically, there's an obligation on the part of the government to provide information to the subcommittee. The subcommittee can ask for all types of information, including particular information about the treatment or the condition of detainees. That may involve perhaps their medical information and it could involve some sensitive personal information about individual detainees.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As I said, we are engaged in consultation with the provinces and territories, and also with other departments and agencies. I did describe the issues for you. It's really a matter of the work that needs to be done to put us in a place where we feel we're fully in compliance and to move forward--issues of new measures, issues of possible legislative changes, issues of resources--and be able to actually calculate the amount of resources that may be required.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We're doing the best we can to move the process along. I can't put a fixed time period on it.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There would be requirements to provide information, of course, and the subcommittee would issue a report respecting Canada. So there is information.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The protocol, as I understand it, does not create a reporting obligation as such; it creates a visiting mechanism, both at the international and at the domestic levels.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Obviously, if you have a treaty and the obligations only fall within the jurisdiction of the federal government, it's quite easy. We have cases in which we've been able to move very quickly forward on human rights treaty ratification when it's just the federal government. It is true that it gets more complicated when you have matters that fall within the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No. We know there are places of detention that could fall under their jurisdiction that we have to look at, consulting with them fully and understanding the implications and their perspectives on it.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There is no official position.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  At the moment, we're in the process of reviewing the issues I spoke about earlier with the provinces and territories. We are reviewing the mechanisms in place already in the provinces and territories to determine whether they meet all the criteria of the protocol and whether they are independent enough of the government.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We do not really have the official position of these provinces and territories at this point.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  At the moment, we are working at the federal level. We are holding our consultations with a view to adopting a federal position. Of course, we share information with the provinces and territories to explain where we are at in the federal process. We expect this will take several months at the federal level and several more months with the provinces and territories.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There is no set date.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As I explained, that is one of the issues we are going to have to study carefully. To my knowledge, no study has been done regarding the resources required by the protocol. That is something that needs to be reviewed. For example, if we were to establish a new mechanism, we will have to do an evaluation of the cost that would be involved.