I'll be as brief as I can, Mr. Chair.
This may seem a bit ironic as in my last intervention I was pointing out....
What third party groups have testified to this committee, particularly Fair Vote Canada, is that having a threshold of $500, which then requires registering immediately as a third party and all of the other obligations, was a quite low threshold. Réal Lavergne pointed out in his testimony before committee that in the Prince Edward Island referendum, the threshold was $500.
Prince Edward Island is a very small jurisdiction in terms of population and media reach. If their spending threshold was $500, the suggestion I'm making in this amendment is that the national threshold should be $2,500, which is a more reasonable threshold to imagine for anyone with plans to impact a national campaign, and $500 in a single electoral district. It's to reduce an onerous burden on particularly all volunteer groups having a very small foray into election activities.
That's a brief explanation. I know you'll be wanting to move on, but I'm happy to answer questions.