First of all, we would like to thank you for being here. It is very kind of you to come and present your very interesting thoughts on the Bill to us, on the process itself and on the crisis in confidence in leaders around the world. I find this very interesting.
Here in Canada, within the federal government, Bill C-2 was essentially developed in the wake of the sponsorship scandal. The conservative government has tried to find a way to avoid any future sponsorship scandal. This is stated in all of the government documents. And yet, several witnesses have told us that the Bill will not necessarily prevent another scandal like the sponsorship scandal.
The government also wants to restore Canadian's confidence in their leaders. However, we have the feeling that we are part of an attempt to manage the perception of the population, whereby the government wants to pass the Bill as quickly as possible, and it is rushing the witnesses — and we apologize for that — to this end.
Do you believe that Bill C-2 will be able to prevent another sponsorship scandal?
During the election campaign, you stated that you had defined certain elements that could be added in order to, if such a thing is possible, get our fiscal house in even better order. Can you describe these elements to us?