We're pleased that there will be a Commissioner of Lobbying. We want the activities of the Commissioner of Lobbying to be as transparent as other officers of Parliament.
I think there's a valid reason to restrict the access to some of the activities and some of the records held by the Commissioner of Lobbying. Obviously when you talk about access and freedom of information, you have to offset and balance that with the right to privacy of individuals and certain information. Once the investigation is concluded, that information should be made public. We would urge that it would be.
This is a subject I'm sure will be monitored carefully. If there is to be a five-year statutory review of this act, one of the considerations will be how clauses like this are working where the word “may” rather than “shall” is in fact used--what has been the experience. That's all we can judge it on. That will be the measure of whether it's a success or a failure.