The purpose of this amendment is to close a perceived loophole that existed in the original draft of the Accountability Act. We are proposing that those who participate in transition periods leading up to the swearing in of a prime minister and his or her ministry be subject to the act. That would mean that the five-year lobbying ban would apply to those who have partaken in the transition process of one government to another.
Actually, I would argue, Mr. Chair, that an individual who has partaken in a transition process would have even more influence than most staff in ministers' offices, because often transition teams are tasked with actually doing the staffing. So they will have been involved in selecting people for offices that they will then lobby. They'll have the ability to lobby people they've hired. As such, they are probably more in need of coverage under this act than are basic staff members in a minister's or a prime minister's office.
Now, this Prime Minister made it clear that during the election he would be banning lobbying for five years by any individual who was involved in offering unpaid work. That means the advisers we hear so much about who get a dollar a year or who volunteer will be covered by the provisions of the Accountability Act. That's because oftentimes it's those people who are not paid by the public purse but who work in the government who have as much if not more influence than employees themselves. And it is not the government's intention to create openings for that to occur.
Finally, as we've seen many times before, when someone works in a prime minister's or a minister's office and doesn't get paid for it, oftentimes the perceived influence they've gained from having had such access to power is remuneration itself.
Through this amendment we are proposing that individuals who have been involved in decision-making, particularly in personnel, not be allowed to use that accumulated power to then lobby the offices that they helped construct.
In conclusion, it is our view that people who partake in transition teams should not be doing it for the purpose of then using the accumulated influence for lobbying purposes. They should be doing it for the good of their country; they should be doing it for public service.
With that, I'd like to invite the technical experts to make any observations they might have.