I must say I was unaware of this restriction on receiving gifts, because it was something that was always happening. Before I was Speaker, I'd go to a reception and it was free. There were sometimes two or three in one evening. Free food was offered at the receptions. There were nibblies; you'd eat stuff, and you might eat enough that you didn't have to go for dinner. This sort of thing goes on big time in Ottawa, and I was unaware that you weren't supposed to receive this kind of gift. I thought it was just standard practice that happened in this city, in Parliament. People want to get parliamentarians out to talk to them, to try to persuade them to look at some issue and deal with it in a different way or to do something about it to fix the problem, or whatever. They do it over a social thing, and they might give you a little booklet or something at the end that sets out their position, or a bundle of papers that set out their position. How much are those worth? I haven't the faintest idea. I wouldn't think much. Often I'd go home, skim through them, and chuck them.
You get all kinds of things like that, and they come to your office and leave you a package of paper stuff, and sometimes now discs with things on them. In my view, that's not something you need to have appraised and then declare as a gift. To me, it's fair enough that people want to give you something to remind you of what they did or remind you that you were at their event or that they want you to read something about what they're doing. I don't know why you'd have to declare that or why you'd have to worry about the value of it, unless it was over $500 or some fairly high figure. Then you would have to declare it, because you'd be getting something that presumably you could sell or otherwise dispose of, unless it was a hugely expensive meal or reception you'd gone to.