Well, $25,000 is borrowed from two provincial statutes which relate to lobbying.
The administrative monetary penalty regime is fairly new. The alternative—and public office holders can choose this—is prosecution and imprisonment. Ordinary people who break the law go before a judge and either are fined or sent to prison. That's always an alternative. But if we're going to go to an administrative monetary penalty regime, which is fairly new, there's not a lot of precedent to look at. It's quite clear that a maximum penalty of $500 is not significant either to send a message to offenders or to deter others. The $25,000 is a model. Again, it's a maximum, like a court fine, and it would still require that the severity of the infraction and other things be taken into account. That's something the committee could review. As I said, if public office holders are troubled by the idea of $25,000, the alternative is to do what happens to ordinary folk; that is, they're charged, brought before a court, and fined or sent to prison. That's how the rule of law applies to everyone else in the country.