Like Commissioner Motherwell, I believe we need to exercise some caution with regard to this proposal. I think these are considerations that could be taken into account. In Quebec, we can choose to sell everything instead of placing everything in a blind trust or mandate. I also have no information that would lead me to believe that blind trusts or mandates do not work. For me, this is a starting point. A blind trust or mandate is one of the measures that can be put in place to ensure that there will be no conflicts of interest or favouritism and that a function will be performed with complete independence of judgment. There are therefore many other measures that can be implemented in parallel. The Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct allows me, in addition to the trust, to implement or suggest other approaches, or to say that we must comply with such and such a request.
In Quebec, in my experience, I have not observed anything that would lead me to believe that this proposal is absolutely necessary. However, it is a discussion that could definitely take place. I don’t think it would be very simple, and I’m not sure what the consequences might be, but it would be good to think about it. So far, in Quebec, I haven’t seen any problems in this regard.