Mr. Chair, when we look at this amendment, we look at the concerns we had about the fact that we had people who were able to, on one day, work for government, and then turn around the next day and be able to receive benefit from that work. We had some concerns about the fact that those who one day are lobbying government, turn around and then get contracts from government. That's something we still have concerns about.
The fact is that we aren't going and taking someone out of their job. It's not penalizing. For the people who were in ministers' offices, who were parachuted into various parts of the public service, if we had retroactively enacted the legislation in front of us on that clause, that would be a retroactive kind of measure--which some of us wouldn't mind, but this is not what we're talking about. With that in mind, we're not affecting someone's employ presently, but the opportunities in the future, absolutely, as with everyone else from here on in.
So in terms of the measure of this, it's something that I think is pretty obvious. You shouldn't be able to, in essence, sell your influence. I think that is congruent with what Canadians want to see, that someone doesn't get to the head of the line because of who they knew in the PMO. I think that's consistent here.