Let's look at the intention of the legislation.
The purpose of the financial legislation is to level the playing field. We want to make sure that all candidates are spending the same amount of money in certain ridings. We invoke spending limits to ensure that takes place. If we have some candidates spending over the limit, technically that gives them an advantage, which goes against the principle of why it is we've brought in the legislation.
The only way we can make sure they're keeping within that spending limit is to ensure we have a provision like subsection 463(2).
The concern I have, based on the presentation, is not that we make an amendment; it seems that the legislation in subsection 463(2) is good because it helps with compliance. The issue I have is more of time.
Why does it take so much time to ensure there is accurate reporting? We're finding out well after the election, over two years after the election, that there were issues related to an accurate report. We have other cases where we have accusations of massive overspending.
It seems to me that we should be looking at allowing Elections Canada more authority to do things in a more timely fashion.
I wonder if you might want to provide a comment on the timeliness of this.