I'll just mention that typically in professional associations, there are tier one and tier two associations. The model you're talking about would put you on a par with professionals such as engineers, accountants, physicians and surgeons. Tier two professionals are the ones that are typically smaller in scope, such as the Alberta shorthand reporters, for instance, or the Institute of Planners. There are a lot of these smaller associations. All of them typically will have their code of ethics and their standards in a regulation embedded into it. That's pretty common in Alberta. I used to be a registrar for a smaller profession. That's not atypical.
As much as I don't like defending what the government does and how they do it, it doesn't seem all that unreasonable to put it into a regulatory framework, especially for trademark agents. I'll leave it at that.