Thank you.
This has been very interesting. Having a sense of the varied experience across Canada is certainly going to help us in our work.
Ms. Denham, I would like to start with you, in terms of the three recommendations you made. The issue of administrative monetary penalties has come up again and again, not just under the Lobbying Act but in a whole manner of issues where we have commissioners playing roles and trying to make sure people follow the rules.
We're always talking about the lobbyists who play by the rules, who do all the hard work, and who have expressed concern about their reputations being impinged upon by any investigation. But there are others for whom it's not in their interests to play by the rules.
We're in a situation, for example, with Bruce Carson, who was looking at a $250-million contract where he was going to get 10%. For $25 million, there was no incentive for this guy to play by the rules. The only thing the lobbying commissioner could do was tell him to write an essay. Well, I had to write essays for Sister Frances Margaret, in grade six, for not paying attention. I faced the same penalty he did when he was potentially looking at a $25-million payout.
How essential is it to have administrative monetary penalties, not just for the bad guys, but to ensure that everybody smartens up and follows the rules?