Thank you.
The current government has released the Prime Minister's document on open and accountable government, and I think we all agree with the aspirations it contains. One that it contained—and this is also repeated in each of the mandate letters that the ministers received—is at all times to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. From time to time questions have come up about what most people would reasonably think would be the appearance of a potential conflict of interest, whether it be in the case of the chief of staff of the agriculture minister or the relationship between the justice minister and her husband.
When these questions come up, the answer is always something along the lines of saying “we have followed the advice of the Ethics Commissioner, and there's nothing wrong, there is no story here, there is no apparent conflict of interest, no appearance of conflict of interest”.
I would like you, Mr. Conacher, if you could, to expand on the obstacles to actually understanding, or having the information or the correct basis to judge, whether screens are maintained or not. You talked about believing that the screen system is not legal. Could you give us more on how we can take at anyone's word that there is no problem when there seems to be a clear appearance of a conflict?