Government Operations committee  There's absolutely nothing incongruous with the settlement arrangement the government arrived at with the former commissioner. That agreement follows standard—

Government Operations committee  The agreement follows standard practice in providing both weeks of severance as well as pay in lieu of notice, in light of the fact that this is a person who approached the government to—

Government Operations committee  —resign her position when she had four years left on a seven-year mandate. The government was of the view that it was in the public interest at that time, when Madame Ouimet approached the government to resign, to negotiate an appropriate package that would allow the office to be able to move forward with an interim commissioner to address the issues.

Government Operations committee  The office was created under the Public Service Disclosure Protection Act, which had been amended by the Federal Accountability Act.

Information & Ethics committee  No, thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  Thanks, Mr. Chairman, for the question. I'm always loath to enter into an exercise of interpreting the Conflict of Interest Act, given that that's the role of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. Ultimately, she is the one who determines where that line is between a private interest and what falls within a general application exception to a private interest.

Information & Ethics committee  I think what I would say, Mr. Chairman, is that ultimately the scheme of this act is to have an independent officer of Parliament in the form of the commissioner be the arbiter of those very questions. That is her role. I would hope that having constructed the legislation, Parliament has expressed its views as to what it wishes this regime to be; it has expressed its views as to what the purpose of this act is, including to facilitate interchange between the private and public sector.

Information & Ethics committee  Certainly. My role with respect to the wall involves really a couple of different aspects. First and foremost, my role is to assist the deputy secretaries and the clerk within the Privy Council Office to understand the scope of the wall, and to ensure that they are identifying matters coming to cabinet or going into the Prime Minister's Office for discussion or decision.

Information & Ethics committee  With respect to other examples of walls, the core principle behind this wall is that you have a process in which a scope has been identified, and you have a clear written understanding among all parties potentially involved in decisions or discussions as to what is or is not within that scope.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. All of the documents on the wall, other than the document that sets out the scope of the wall, are based on a few different sources of information. The first is a template and a checklist that I drew from the American Bar Association. It follows basically a typical practice used in most law practices in both the United States and Canada.

Information & Ethics committee  Do you mean just in terms of the title? I mean, it's just a title.

Information & Ethics committee  Correct.

Information & Ethics committee  I think it depends on what one is talking about. If you're talking about... Again, I don't want to talk about specific facts per se, but there are many systems in place in government to protect against fraud or fraudulent use of funds, those sorts of things. In terms of whether or not a given exercise of judgment crosses a line in terms of a standard of conduct, such as the one here, ultimately it's for the Prime Minister to judge whether that conduct is sufficiently egregious to warrant asking for a minister's resignation.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think I can agree with that in minority Parliament situations. But in a typical majority Parliament situation you'd be on a four- to five-year clock, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Right, but those public office holders are all public office holders where the Prime Minister recommends their appointment to the Governor in Council. Again, it's part of the layer of appointments the Prime Minister has responsibility for.