Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Conacher, for being here. I've had the occasion to hear your testimony at other committees as well, including government operations and so on, so I'm well aware of your dedication and your many years of work in this area.
I think you're aware of the motion that we have before us today and what we're looking at. I'll just read out the first paragraph, which states:
That, pursuant to Standing Order...108(3)(h), the Committee review the safeguards which are in place to avoid and prevent conflicts of interest in federal government procurement, contracting, granting, contribution and other expenditure policies.
On that, I want to highlight the fact, as you mentioned in your opening remarks, that we're actually due for a statutory review of the Conflict of Interest Act. I think in that regard, since we are here, the kinds of remarks that you're bringing to us today are very pertinent.
For those who are watching and listening to us, briefly, with regard to the Conflict of Interest Act, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner has a dual mandate. He is responsible for both public office holders and members of the House of Commons. In that mandate, for public office holders there are the following four points: providing confidential advice to the Prime Minister; providing confidential advice to individual public office holders; examining and reporting on possible contraventions of the act; and administering the disclosure regime.
Just to summarize, any parliamentarian can request an investigation or the commissioner himself can conduct such an examination; he or she reports such investigations to the Prime Minister; and the reports are made public, although particular types of information must be kept confidential.
This comes to my question to you. What are your top three recommendations to this committee to improve the Conflict of Interest Act? Also, what elements of the act are working, as far as you're concerned?