I'll talk about the Lobbying Act first. This committee recommended a complete ban. We haven't seen that come in. The government seemed to endorse that in its response, and I guess we'll wait to see the legislative amendments when they come forward.
With respect to the Conflict of Interest Act, we noted the framework around gifts—there is the guidelines document and so forth—and there isn't an express prohibition. There's a requirement for disclosure and a requirement for forfeiture.
There have been recent cases that we have been made aware of where the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner has strongly suggested that a number of chiefs of staff to ministers, for example, not attend an event. There was the perception that a meal would be served and therefore it was a gift. It's probably not something you would put in the act, but it's part of the downstream process, part of the creation of guideline documents that would support the act. You're going to want to look at whether a meal is a gift. What if it's two courses, not three courses? You've all been to lots of gala fundraisers.
If you put those two acts together and in the course of that discussion you determine that we should stay away from these things because there could be the perception of undue influence—“It's a lobbyist inviting me and I don't want to be lobbied over dinner.” If you're comfortable with that being the standard, then we'll live by it. But I think you need to ask yourselves.... We've all been to those dinners, and it's a pretty poor lobbyist who pulls a deck out halfway through a dinner and says “Can I go through my top 10 issues with you?” We all go to those for the same reasons you do—to eat the excellent chicken and listen to the excellent speeches, and then try to get home by 10 o'clock.
By and large, the activities that would be most harmed by a complete ban on gifts would be those activities that are the most benign, the charitable fundraisers and the types of gala events that we all go to, to support a cause. This is the opportunity to put some clarity around that, because there is a chill around these dinners around town. I know some of our members are feeling it. There are a lot of questions, and it will be up to you to answer them.