Thank you very much.
Thank you for coming today.
I'll make a couple of points and then ask just a couple of questions. I'll start with the positive and then go to some of the things we have concerns about.
The idea of banning trust funds is something we applaud, and we're glad to see that this has been the case. We have some concerns about where that money might still be, but it's good to see that's a change. What I'm referring to is that trust funds are still with riding associations; I guess one would suggest you can't do anything about it. Anyhow, as we go ahead, it's good to see they will be banned. To require sitting or elected MPs to disclose any trust fund is obviously something we applaud.
We also applaud the idea--we've been calling for this for years and are glad to see it in this bill--of taking the appointment of returning officers out of the hands of the political sphere, if you will, and making it something that is merit based.
Maybe that will just be a nice segue into looking at the appointment process. One of the things we had called for is a skills- and competency-related criteria for all government appointments. I see there's a process here, but maybe you could just elaborate on that. We'd hope to be able to submit criteria to the appropriate standing committee and publicly release the committee's approved criteria, so in effect it's not just something that is out there in the public sphere about all these appointments. If any one of my constituents might want to apply for something, for instance, they should be able to do so. There should be criteria based on certain skills and competencies for those appointments, and there should be some oversight.
I am concerned about the process. There doesn't seem to be a process where we would have a standing committee with the oversight and indeed the accountability of parliamentarians, and therefore citizens to look at government appointments. I think that's really critical.
I have a couple of other things. I hear echoes somewhere around this place that fixed election dates might be coming. We want that. Electoral reform isn't here at all. The citizens' consultation process we were hoping for that would build on what we had from the last Parliament is not here. We would obviously like to see spending limits in leadership contests. I think that's something Canadians would like to see, because indeed we could be nominating a future Prime Minister from one of the political parties. We think that's something that needs more accountability and definitely a better filter. We would want full disclosure and transparency for all leadership candidates, and that's not in here.
I'll stop there, because there are a number of questions I have put forward.
Thank you.