Thank you.
I'd like to first respond to--I'm not sure it was part of the question, but it was certainly stated--that I might return to Onex under rules that are different from anybody else. I don't think that's true, at all. I think there's a system established within the Ethics Commissioner's office around leaves of absence.
Particularly, the reference was made to the cooling-off period in section 35 of the Conflict of Interest Act. That section provides that nobody accepts a contract of employment with a company with which they have had direct dealings during the prior year in their role as a public office holder.
Definitionally, the construct of the ethical wall that I have put before the committee ensures that I will not have any dealings with Onex Corporation or any of its subsidiaries, let alone during the year before any return to Onex. I think the cooling-off period is a moot point. I think the rules apply to me as they would to anybody else in that regard.
Secondly, I think an important question has been asked about how the wall operates. The member has given me a slide with a number of departments of government listed on it. It's important to understand that the ethical wall is established around issues and topics and decision points, not around departments of government.
What the ethical wall sets out, I think very clearly, is that any matter or discussion or information that may relate to any of those areas that are subject to the wall--so anything touching an Onex company, Canadian aerospace manufacturing--will be diverted from me. People other than me will be involved in making decisions and briefings about those. They won't come close to me.
I think it's going to be quite straightforward. In my experience, and I can only speak to my personal experience, the interactions between government and Onex have been very limited. I think ethical walls like this have operated successfully in the past.
In my view, it's actually going to be very straightforward, and it's not going to hinder the service I'm going to render to the Prime Minister.