Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have a comment, first, to follow up on one of the questions or comments by Mr. Dewar on the change that this proposed act would have, inasmuch as rather than the government being able to appoint returning officers, the Chief Electoral Officer would appoint returning officers on merit-based appointments. I know that your party, Mr. Dewar, is in support of that, and the Bloc also. As a matter of fact, I think it was a very vigorous Bloc suggestion to have this done. So I am also very pleased to see this in the bill.
My comment is merely this: I sit on the House procedures committee and Dr. Kingsley appeared before our committee. I asked him whether he was working on establishing this merit-based package that would determine the qualifications required for returning officers. He informed me, Mr. Dewar, that he already has that done. In fact, when I pressed him on how long it would take—because we're in a minority Parliament we don't know when the next election might be called—he said if and when the bill is passed, he would be able, in his estimation, to appoint or have returning officers in the 308 ridings across Canada appointed and in place within two months. He said the bill has first to be passed in order to allow him to go out and do that.
I would suggest that when he appears before this committee as a witness, you can ask him about the package of qualifications he feels is required, that type of thing.
The question I have specifically is on trust funds, again an issue that Mr. Dewar raised. We've all heard stories about trust funds and their impact on election campaigns. Is there any empirical evidence, any studies you've seen that demonstrate how trust funds have been used and how many of them have been used in election financing in individual campaigns?