I move amendment NDP-26, Chair.
If we take a look at the intent of this section, we are looking at how we regulate and deal with areas of government, and one of the areas of government that is very important to us is how lobbying is dealt with. We've discussed lobbying before, and we've discussed contingency fees. We've discussed the registry. We've discussed the fact that lobbying needs to be cleaned up in this town. I won't go over the horror stories of what happens when lobbying is not regulated.
What we need to do is make sure this is going to be something that is all-encompassing. We have one crack at this for now, and that is to make sure that lobbying is something that is done responsibly--and there are responsible lobbyists in this town.
When I look back to what we had put forward in our ethics package that Mr. Broadbent moved before the election, one of the key things he wanted to make sure of was that we wouldn't have people who are lobbying government turning around and receiving government contracts. It's a very basic notion. In fact many of the people I know who do lobbying, who are responsible lobbyists--which is the majority of them--know that to be an ethical way of doing their jobs.
You decide what kind of lobbying you're going to do. You set up your operations such that you lobby on one particular area, and you don't confuse things. In other words, it's like two separate circles; it's not like a Venn diagram. When we have people who are lobbying government one day turning around and getting government contracts the next, we end up with this kind of Venn diagram. It's not only confusing, but I would say it's not ethical, because you're receiving contracts from people one day, the next day you're lobbying, and it goes on and on.
Canadians aren't aware of this, by and large. Most people outside of this town didn't know this was an issue until recently. We want to make sure this is dealt with. We want to make sure that people who are lobbying one day don't turn around and get a contract the next day. We want to put up a wall that doesn't have holes in it, so there are no tunnels that people can crawl through to get to the other side.
What this amendment does is ensure that contracts for the performance of work, the supply of goods, or the rendering of services not be awarded to firms that normally lobby the Government of Canada.
I have talked to people about this. To a person, no one disagrees with this. I can't imagine why anyone would disagree with this. If there are other concerns, let's have them. But in terms of the ethical behaviour of how people lobby and how they receive contracts, it's pretty clear. People in my constituency don't have connections that they can one day turn into lucrative contracts. That's the kind of thing we need to steer away from.
That's the essence of this motion, the motivation behind it. It's to finally cement the difference between what it is to lobby and what it is to garner influence from that lobby, which is to be able to get government contracts.