Sections 35 and 36 of the Conflict of Interest Act describe restrictions and prohibitions on public office holders, and separately, on reporting public office holders, which generally involve one or two-year bans on dealings with former departments with which the public office holder had “significant official dealings” during a one or two-year period prior to his or her last day of office.
In addition, the Lobbying Act creates a five-year ban on former designated public office holders registering as a consultant lobbyist or in-house organization lobbyist. Former designated public office holders may, however, register as in-house corporate lobbyists provided they self-determine that they lobby no more than 19% of their time.
These multiple and overlapping definitions have already caused some confusion in the current examination of the Conflict of Interest Act, with some witnesses and members citing definitions found in one act when meaning to cite definitions found under another one. It is the submission of our association that you examine very closely the submission made by the Canadian Bar Association, which stated that:
The CBA believes that post-employment restrictions on public office holders should be consistently applied and enforced. To this end, the CBA believes that to the greatest extent possible post-employment restrictions on public office holders should be interpreted and administered by a single authority—
—that is, the Commissioner of Lobbying or the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.