Thank you very much.
My thanks to the witnesses for joining us today.
We are hearing a lot of interesting things here. The first thing, on which we are in agreement, is that lobbying is actually very important. Often, the people representing their interests know much more about them than the lawmakers, whether members of Parliament or not. So it is important for us to be in contact with those with a deep knowledge of their industries and their interests.
Mr. Jordan, I am going to go back to what you said about the OECD. Their representatives were here just last week. They told us that we were in the best group and that everything was wonderful. However, we asked them the clearest of questions: We check all the theoretical boxes, but are we that good in practice? They said that it was something they could not evaluate. So we are super in theory, but clearly, there are limits and some things happen.
You said earlier that legislation is in place and that, for example, someone who gained knowledge of an industry before taking up a position of influence, or even after, would not be supposed to use it. However, we see quite interesting things happening. One might say that there is a lot of potential conflict of interest.
When I see what is happening now, I question myself. I want to be very clear: What would be the most effective way, involving less paperwork, to monitor real lobbying? By that I mean efforts to influence decision-makers to take taxpayers' money and put it towards very specific interests. I do not mean fully explaining one's knowledge of an industry, shall we say, so that the decision-makers can make the best possible decisions for the public.