I'll answer Mr. Sauvageau's question as well.
Mr. Sauvageau, to begin with, Mr. Walsh's concerns struck a cord with us that we should be very careful in this legislation to not touch on the authority, the autonomy, or the independence of the House of Commons or members of Parliament. First of all, it does not cover all members because of being sensitive to that concern.
On senior staff, we're obviously not talking about people who are receptionists or in a purely administrative capacity but about someone who has a decision-making role in the office and who could therefore be seen to have gained information and developed a particular interest. Remember, we're talking about political roles for political staff.
I think this is a reasonable compromise to make sure that we don't offend the autonomy of MPs but we create a balanced and level playing field to get at the very objective that I think the government is properly trying to get at. It is to ensure that people with political influence do not go into the lobbying business for some period of time.