Mr. Hugh Kane:

The oversight group is an independent group and I am an independent chairman. Our terms of reference ask us to report back to the management board of the Department of Health. Regarding how the group was chosen, we were looking for people with competencies in the area of developing policy and people with an understanding of mental health systems and how management systems work. We identified a group of people based on those criteria.

I was before the committee last October just as we were beginning our work. I regret, and it is unfortunate, that there is a sense that we are doing different things and that we are not on the same side in terms of what we are trying to achieve. The particular work we were tasked with in our terms of reference was to review A Vision for Change and to come up with a refreshed version of it. The focus of what we are doing is on the next period, being cognisant of what happened previously and what is currently happening. Essentially, that is what we were asked to do in our terms of reference.