Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of comments.
First, I find it curious, the members of the opposition who, when Ms. Roscoe's situation first surfaced in the media, were adamant, saying this is terrible. I mean, how can you allow this person who worked on the transition team to become a lobbyist? I don't want to put words in Ms. Jennings' mouth, but it now seems they're reversing their position and defending Ms. Roscoe.
The Prime Minister made it quite clear at the outset that he did not want to have any lobbyists working on his transition team. The spirit of the act is such that he wanted to make sure that lobbyists, or at least people who worked for the government in some position of influence, would be prevented from lobbying the government for five years.
Quite frankly, some people--witnesses and some members of this committee--have argued that five years is overboard; it's too long; it's almost draconian. Well, the Prime Minister wanted to make it absolutely crystal clear to Canadians that he would not tolerate anyone who had a position of influence within the government then being able to lobby the government, for five years. That's how tough he wanted this to be, to give the Canadian public confidence that there would not be any undue influence and lobbyists would not be able to take advantage of a prestigious position within government for their own personal gain.
When it was discovered that Ms. Roscoe, who was on the transition team, and as my colleague Mr. Poilievre said, was in a considerable position of influence, was then going to be in a position where she could be lobbying the government, the Prime Minister decided to bring forward this amendment to stop that from happening, to close a loophole. That's all this is, and that is the spirit of this act.
Again, I find it curious that now the opposition seems to be defending the right of Ms. Roscoe.
It's nothing against Ms. Roscoe personally. The fact is that she was in a distinct position, a position of great influence, I would argue, and we believe it is not in the best interest of Canadians, certainly from the perception that Canadians would have of this act, if we allowed Ms. Roscoe--or anyone else, for that matter--to hold a position in transition and then be able to lobby the government following that, within a five-year period. That is something that I think is unconscionable, given what we are attempting to create with this act.
So that is all the Prime Minister and the government have stated with this amendment, to close a loophole and not allow anyone, whether it was known before the fact or after the fact.... If someone was on a transition team on behalf of the government, they cannot lobby that government for five years, just like everyone else.