Thank you very much, Mrs. Shanahan.
Thank you, Madam Chair and Madam Commissioner.
It is a pleasure to have this second opportunity to speak with you. I have to tell you that I really enjoyed our first meeting.
I do not know whether all my colleagues know this, but before I became a member of Parliament, I was a staff lobbyist for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. On my team, I was the one responsible for lobbying members of Parliament during the 41st Parliament. We talked about this before. On my team, I had insisted, even with the volunteers who came from across Canada to advance the interests of the universities, that we register even though it was not required. I thought it was always better to give as much information as possible to your predecessor, rather than not give enough.
However, I did notice that it was sometimes a bit complicated to use the registry, especially for volunteers who do not lobby regularly. Indeed, less than 5% of their work is devoted to lobbying. I am not even talking about the 20% threshold.
Is there a way to simplify registration so that Canadians can get a realistic update on the status of lobbyists who speak to politicians or senior officials?