I will build on Mr. Martin's point.
We've had a lot of people before the committee who say they love the Accountability Act; they just don't like how it applies to them. We find that very interesting.
You will all be glad, also, to be reminded that we've been talking about an accountability package for two years now, since the Liberal sponsorship scandal was exposed by the Auditor General's report in the very beginning of 2004. We're now moving into mid-2006. So yes, there has been plenty of discussion. It has gone on and on. There is no knee-jerk reaction in this country; if anything, we're moving far too slowly.
You'll also be very pleased to know that this committee, by the end of this week, will have had a total of 70 witnesses. We will have had 45 hours of witness testimony and can anticipate probably another 45 hours' worth of review on the amendments through clause-by-clause. I'm sure you will be very impressed with the volume of work that's going into this particular bill.
On your particular concerns, though, about filing requirements, we've had other lobbyists before this committee who said it was too cumbersome to have a filing requirement. They, of course, say they're not worried about lobbyists, but are worried about these mom-and-pop shops that are somehow going to be encumbered by these rules.
I have never met a single small business in my riding, or a single charity in my riding, that has said they couldn't get by without their lobbyist--not one. We're not really talking about mom-and-pop charities and small businesses, are we? We're really talking about big enterprises and big lobby firms--most of which, by the way, do these filings anyway, every single day. They even have software designed to do these filings. They do it because they want to bill their clients. Every 15-minute phone conversation is recorded. They have no problem putting those into their invoices, but when it comes to reporting it to the public and keeping it out in the open, all of a sudden it's a huge encumbrance.
I want to know why. Maybe you can explain the contradiction there.