Information & Ethics committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. I'm pleased to be here today to discuss the main estimates and outline the priorities for the coming fiscal year. I'm joined by Charles Dutrisac, director of finance and acting chief financial officer. My mandate has three compon

Information & Ethics committee  From the lobbyist perspective?

Information & Ethics committee  I would say yes. We have, at any one time, 5,000 lobbyists registered in the registry, and more than 8,000 in any given year because people are registering and deregistering as they need to. The questions come into the office as to whether they can do certain activities before t

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  If I understand the question correctly, you're saying that if I appeared before the committee during the next legislative review, would I suggest the same things? The answer is yes. I might look to see, in the additional five years, what else could be suggested, but I would stand

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  Where I can, I've done that. I have spoken to some of the universities and so on to get that message out. But this goes back to the point I had as well; we've managed to do quite a lot with limited resources. Having more resources would allow more of that to occur. In the last ei

Information & Ethics committee  In my opinion, I would say it is. I think there's the fact that there have been demonstrated consequences to the act. I think we have a number of regimes. All of these are contributing to the confidence that Canadians can have in their governments. When I look at things around

Information & Ethics committee  Well, it's hard to be hypothetical without having all of the facts, to be honest with you, because there are so many things with regard to people in attendance. I think the importance here is always that things happen to the highest ethical standards. You're raising some questi

Information & Ethics committee  I guess I'm trying to understand your question. A meeting being agreed to by both parties is what determines whether a meeting has been organized in advance or not, and it doesn't have to be in a meeting room; it can be anywhere. As I said previously, if someone were to see you

Information & Ethics committee  To be honest, I think I've mentioned them. I have nothing else to add at this point.

Information & Ethics committee  What we have found in that particular one.... What we have now in the registration is to have them identify who the ultimate client is. But you have some consulting lobbyists maybe hiring, maybe subletting out, and so if you look at, let's say, the third consultant in line, they

Information & Ethics committee  I don't have any particular examples because I have not, in my eight years, actually found anything that has stopped me, but it is interesting that it is in all of the other provisions except for the Lobbying Act, which is why to keep conformity, I would suggest it would be impor

Information & Ethics committee  It's a good question. I think the one thing I would encourage a successor to keep is consultation, and this is where I think consultation has become particularly important. There was an issue that was brought before the courts by Democracy Watch, which found that is where the rea

Information & Ethics committee  Are you referring to the nine recommendations?