The five-year period stems from a decision made by Parliament in 2008, and it's in the Lobbying Act. I didn't make that decision, so I'm applying the act as it's written.
Currently, a designated public office holder who leaves office is prohibited from lobbying as a consultant lobbyist or on behalf of an organization. However, if they go work for a company, they can lobby for up to eight hours. That discrepancy has to be eliminated. That's the first thing.
The question remains whether the five-year period should stay in the act. I admit that this is a long time. However, for some people, the prohibition period should perhaps be longer than five years. I think that this period is reasonable for certain people at the moment. The way the section is currently worded gives me a lot of flexibility to look at each case and determine whether conditions could be imposed. For example, the five-year period could be reduced for people who have administrative duties or have been in office for a very short period of time. That means that there are already criteria in place that allow for some flexibility so that not everyone is subject to the five-year period.
I have heard some people say that maybe there should be categories, and that some people should have to respect the five-year period and others should have to respect a different number of years, such as a year or two. It's important to be careful. Someone who holds an entry-level position but has been travelling from one department to another for 15 years has just as good a network as that of someone who was a minister for three years, for example.
The goal of the restriction is precisely to prevent former public office holders from giving an advantage to their new employer or a new client because of the people they have met and the information they have obtained during their years of work. It's important to be careful, then. It's not as easy as just saying that certain positions will be appointed.