Thank you for that.
I'd like to go directly to the issue of facilitation payments, and we've had a lot of discussion about it here today.
My understanding is that Canada is responding to the OECD report that included interventions by the United States in a peer-reviewed report that pointed out a number of areas of the current Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act that needed, in their view, to be amended and updated to reflect the OECD convention. One of those criticisms was the fact that our legislation currently does not prohibit facilitation payments.
We all know that there is a provision in Bill S-14 allowing a delay in enforcement to give Canadian companies time to change their policies and procedures to ensure that they don't run afoul of this, which will be a new prohibition on Canadian companies.
There's some misunderstanding as to whether or not American companies are allowed to make these kinds of payments. When I asked that question of our officials—of Mr. Kessel—he pointed out that under the Securities Exchange Act these kinds of payments are in fact illegal and that administrative proceedings can be brought against public companies in the United States that are governed by the Securities Exchange Act.
I wonder if you could, Ms. Keeping, tell us, in your view, is the facilitation payments provision of Bill S-14 a response to the criticisms that were made of Canada by the United States and other countries in the OECD report? Do you think that it puts Canadian companies at any kind of a disadvantage versus American companies in doing business around the world?
Maybe I could ask the same questions of you, Mr. Osborne. Do you agree with Mr. Kessel's view of American provisions that prohibit some American companies from making these kinds of payments?