Hon. Gwen Boniface: Thank you very much for the question. As I have said before in the chamber, it is my privilege to sit on that committee with you and my colleagues Senator Harder and Senator Carignan.

Many questions arose as a result of the inquiry in terms of how the inquiry and the parliamentary committee would sit together. Let me speak to how the legislation works, which I think makes it clear for us.

The inquiry was anticipated in the legislation, it was announced and it deals with the circumstances leading up to the declaration of the emergency, generally.

With respect to the parliamentary committee, it deals with the declaration of emergency from the point of invocation to the point of revocation. Mr. Beatty appeared as a witness. I cannot quote him, but let me paraphrase him. He indicated that, at times, one will bleed into the other because you need certain information in order to satisfy questions that may arise pertaining to both.

The committee has heard from two ministers so far. We will have further witnesses, and we anticipate that the RCMP and CSIS will appear next week. Last week, we heard from Department of Finance representatives.

We will proceed with our work plan. I must say that the committee has shown an air of cooperation in order to advance the work plan. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses, and I am sure there will be many more to come who will help to satisfy the questions that we, as a committee, need to answer.

Hon. Gwen Boniface: Thank you, Senator Tannas, for the question. As you know, the report I filed yesterday dealt with the meeting that took place on March 13, during which we were able to have the organizational meeting, as you’ve said, and the joint chairs had to be formally elected, as did the vice-chairs.

I want to assure members of the Senate that they are very well represented by Senator White, Senator Harder and Senator Carignan as our vice-chair. We have a number of routine motions that we’ve dealt with. We will deal with some others on Thursday night, which is the evening of our next meeting.

I feel reassured, having met my co-chairs, Mr. Green and Mr. Fortin, that we are all agreed on moving this process forward. I met other members of the committee, and I believe that there is a lot of commitment to get the process moving and to ensure that we do a fulsome job. I remain optimistic, and I’m reassured by the people I’ve met at the table.