Right now the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct is a non-statutory document so there are no fines or jail terms. There are reports to Parliament, but as I've said before, I think the consequences are quite significant when you think of the lobbyist's reputation in terms of maintaining or gaining employment. In terms of breaches of the act, for an indictment it is as high as $200,000, or two years in prison. For summary convictions, it's as high as $50,000, so there are fairly substantial fines.
In the past I have advocated for administrative monetary penalties, which would give the commissioner more of a continuum in terms of ensuring the appropriate compliance measure with the offence. Right now, using it for lesser transgressions such as for late filing, it would be educating and monitoring. Referrals to the RCMP for breaches of the act would then go further to charges. For breaches of the code, it would be reports to Parliament.
I think going forward I would see having more of a continuum and having the administrative monetary penalties, rather than making stronger hammers, if you will, at the other end, but instead having something in between the two extremes.