Information & Ethics committee  As I said, in terms of transparency, there's no need to change the act. Transparency needs to be reviewed in the monthly reports. If the lobbyist requests the meeting, it must be registered. It will be easier for me to speak in English. Right now, if the lobbyist requests the

Information & Ethics committee  As I've said, what becomes important is whether lobbyists are actually in attendance, in any encounter. With the act, because events where there are invitations would then be oral and arranged meetings, if lobbying occurred, they would have to be properly registered. To go back

Information & Ethics committee  From what I've seen, transparency and accountability requests have increased in recent years. More and more cities are implementing regimes to enhance accountability in lobbying cases. The citizens are asking for more information. They want more compliance and transparency. When

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. The lobbyist must register to lobby. When there has been 50 hours of communication between the public office holder and the lobbyist, it must be registered. It's easier to implement and calculate. I've noticed that the threshold of 20%, the significant part of a person's d

Information & Ethics committee  You are always a public office holder. If you are communicating with a public office holder, I will be looking at whether the lobbyist is properly registered. That was my point in saying that it doesn't matter where the public office holder is in terms of the airport lounge or si

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, which is why I would be looking at the lobbyist in that situation.

Information & Ethics committee  The consequences that exist right now for breaches of the code are reports to Parliament. As I was saying, I've tabled 10 reports to Parliament today, finding 12 lobbyists in breach. There are no fines or jail terms in comparison to the act because the code is a non-statutory ins

Information & Ethics committee  As I've said, because I take all allegations seriously, I'm currently looking into the matter. At this point I don't have any further comment until I get a chance to analyze the situations.

Information & Ethics committee  The office right now is well established. There are always opportunities for improvement. The registry is something that needs to have investments put in it. Looking at today's technology and so on, we're currently trying to find ways for monthly communication reports to make it

Information & Ethics committee  To see whether the sense of obligation has been created, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  As I've said in numerous appearances, my experience with lobbyists is that they do appreciate the important role they play in democracy and they are wanting to comply with the act and the code. It's the active participation during the consultation process, where the lobbyists wer

Information & Ethics committee  The consultation period, yes. And the questions that were coming into the office as to whether they could...before they actually took on certain activities have increased. All of this to me indicates that in terms of trying to reinforce this culture of compliance, lobbyists are a

Information & Ethics committee  The maximum fine is $50,000 for a summary conviction. For the $7,500, in that particular case, as well, it was the first conviction under the act, and the individual actually pleaded guilty. So in terms of that I think it was a reasonable fine, and I prohibited the lobbyist from

Information & Ethics committee  Actually, lobbying is communicating with a public office holder on one of the registerable activities under the act. If the individual paid and is lobbying that public office holder, there are requirements to register. It doesn't matter where the particular encounter occurs, whet

Information & Ethics committee  In 2013, I conducted a type of test to see whether the code was meeting its objectives. Since they didn't think there was any problem, the lobbyists wondered why I was asking these questions. However, I immediately noticed that everyone, including lobbyists, had made comments. Th