Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you very much for the question. I think it raises a good point. Just to reiterate, the Public Affairs Association, and certainly our practitioners, very much embrace the requirements for transparency and openness. Indeed, in most jurisdictions across the country we have to abide by those rules, as it now stands, and we are certainly looking at ways to work with government to make them better.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  I thank you very much for the question. I think it speaks to the heart of quite a bit of misperception when it comes to the true professional practice of government relations. There seems to be at least the inference from some quarters that the practice of government relations is very much a one-sided affair.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you very much. I have just one point, actually. Certainly we agree with the notion of voluntary guidelines. Last year the Public Affairs Association adopted a statement of ethical principles that applies to all our members from coast to coast to coast. We're quite pleased that the uptake of those ethical principles has been quite good in our industry, and we've been working very well with other provincial governments to bring up to date other lobbyist registry systems to ensure a good amount of cooperation and synergy between government interest in lobbyist registries and accountability and what the industry is doing on a self-imposed basis.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  The statement, as it now stands, is certainly a living document. Our end objective is to look at some form of accreditation that would have real penalties associated with it. As it stands right now, non-compliance with the statement means expulsion from the industry association.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  We would certainly be interested in working with government on a series of rules that would make sense from both an industry and a government standpoint. We're certainly interested in making sure everybody in our profession abides by the rules, and we're quite happy to abide by lobbyist registries and other systems of accountability that make sense.

Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity. Pertaining to the question, and not to repeat much of what has been said, I think it's important to make two points. One has to do with the administrative complexity and the time required to actually assess the bill. As a practitioner in the field, I can tell you that most of the people who are government relations practitioners are actually small independent businesses.