You used the words “personal interests”. That expression is barely used nowadays because people are increasingly using “special interests”. Special interests are at play. The shift from the dimension of personal interests to that of special interests already significantly broadens the interests that may be called into question when a public servant's decision is influenced.
I talked about political parties in my example. Does prioritizing or accepting some influence on a public decision because we want to place our political party in a favourable situation that enables it to receive funding constitute a problem? Earlier, we discussed the whole issue of gifts that is absent. However, regarding that legislation, I think a debate should be held to clarify the aspect of political party funding. Focus should be placed on the actions taken by public office holders, especially ministers, in terms of funding.
To quote Quebec, ministers did have profitability standards to meet in fundraising, and that could lead to all kinds of pressure and negative perceptions. From that point of view, we could have a very negative perception of the idea that someone may have had undue influence on a public decision solely for the purpose of helping their political party acquire funding more easily. That already implies a broadened scope, which is well beyond a public office holder's direct personal interest. We have crossed over into the area of special interests.
There are other cases we found interesting, where public office holders' family members and presumed friends seemed to garner certain favours. Are those not special interests related to a family network—a close network as described here? The expression of a broadened special interest could bring us to question the validity of a public decision that would favour friends. As we jokingly say back home, Mr. Accurso had a huge number of friends. Everyone was Mr. Accurso's friend. That raises the following question. How could decisions have been negatively affected with regard to that? In any case, when it comes to perception, Canadians have the right to ask questions.
Given that such a piece of legislation is being discussed again and questioned, I feel that special interests must clearly be broadened to determine what types of interests could be favoured by unfair and inequitable decisions for Canadians.