As I said, I'm glad that the OECD was happy to appear before the committee and share the observations that they made as part of their study of Canada's integrity regime. I'm glad that they were also able to make comments specifically about the Lobbying Act and the regime that's in place for lobbyists, in which they did say that we compare relatively well with the other jurisdictions they studied around the world.
We have a very comprehensive regime wherein we include in-house lobbyists and consultant lobbyists. We have stringent penalties for contraventions of the act, with criminal sanctions of $200,000 or up to two years in prison, for example. There are very severe penalties for contraventions. We also have very strong post-employment obligations that are embedded in the act to make sure that public office holders are not using their position to benefit themselves in terms of post-public life career opportunities.
Overall, Canada has been recognized worldwide as a leader. Are there opportunities for improvement? Absolutely. As Mr. Cooper has pointed out, the act is almost 20 years old now without having been modified. There is definitely an opportunity to look at it and see how we can modernize it, but overall, I think it is recognized worldwide as a pretty strong regime.