This is an issue that came up when the Lobbying Act went through its five-year review. It was this committee, I guess, that looked at that, and the report it issued recommended that this should be looked at in terms of harmonizing that post-employment regime.
I think that is something that, again, probably merits good examination by the committee. The government was clear in its response to the prior committee report under the Lobbying Act, that it would be interested in hearing from this committee on this with respect to this act. Once it sees the views of this committee on the Conflict of Interest Act angle of it, I think there's interest in seeing whether or not that's something worth doing.
I think it's recognized that there are issues with having the two regimes the way they are and that it's creating some confusion. There may be issues around whether or not the levels of sanction are proportionate. Sorry, I didn't mean sanctions; I meant to say the amount of the time during which the prohibitions apply, the five years versus the one or two years under the Conflict of Interest Act, depending on whether you're a minister or a different type of public office holder.