I will obviously have a full exit briefing with the Ethics Commissioner and her staff, as is provided for under the act. I've read the act several times very thoroughly. I've thought very carefully about how it might apply to me in my circumstances. Again, I think it's a very well-intentioned question. The member knows that this is a hypothetical: would I possibly learn something that has no application to any of my prior life, but might have application to a future life that hasn't happened yet? This is something that may or may not happen.
I don't think it will be the first time it's ever happened to me. It would happen to any—any—reporting public office holder, whether going to a job they had never thought about, or going back to a job they had previously held. It would happen to anybody, and I think that I would do what everybody else would do, which is to get some counselling and advice on the way out. And by the way, that advice remains open to me even after having left public office. I still have the resources of that office to go to and seek advice.
I can tell you, Mr. Chair, that I have invested at least 20 years in business and my own reputation. I'm excited to come to Ottawa. I'm excited to come into public service, because I think I have something to offer and to contribute. In no way will I put myself in a position of undoing what's taken 20 years to build.