Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll live with whatever powers Parliament decides to give me.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In terms of how this would take place, I indicated that we couldn't put in place administrative measures to address that. In terms of hiring, I think we would consider adopting a procedure so that it would be very transparent. It would be open. It would be a position that would b

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That is correct. I was not consulted.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I indicated in response to a previous question that we are at the early stages of considering how best to address this bill, but one proposal would be that we conduct a national open competition where Canadians with the experience in enforcement in elections could apply and a boa

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In terms of dismissal, again my thinking is that if we had concerns regarding the work of the commissioner of elections, we could retain respected outside authority to examine our concerns and prepare a report. We could make our decision based upon that report, and we could be tr

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The existing one?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not familiar enough with the existing procedure to be able to answer that question.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This will be the first time, in our experience, that this is here.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, I wasn't consulted.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, I'm not.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not in a position to answer that. It's a policy choice of the government, and ultimately of Parliament, to decide where to place the commissioner of elections. My role in coming here today was to describe to you what operational impacts that move might have on the organizatio

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, that's a policy choice. I'd also point out that in terms of the investigations, we keep some distance from investigations. That is the responsibility and will remain the responsibility of the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have provided the same type of pre-charge advice to the commissioner of elections, and we provide it to other regulatory agencies.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Let me give you a bit of background to that. “For cause” would include incompetence, conflict of interest, misconduct, misbehaviour, and things of that nature. The bill also proposes or states that the commissioner would conduct his investigations independently. So I won't have

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, it would, but I just want the committee to realize that in giving me the power to dismiss for cause, I will not have the ability at all to oversee the work the commissioner does in respect of his investigations.