Thank you for your question, Mr. Boulerice.
I'm just going to make a technical comment on amendment CPC-110. I would note that the new section 358.01 here proposed refers to section 358, which has been deleted by the adoption of amendment LIB-33.
To answer your question, Mr. Boulerice, I should note that the new division 0.1 was created under another Liberal amendment that was adopted yesterday. Broadly speaking, that new division prohibits the use of foreign funds at any time for partisan advertising, election advertising, partisan activities and election surveys. More specifically, it provides as follows:
349.02 No third party shall use funds for a partisan activity, for advertising or for an election survey if the source of the funds is a foreign entity. 349.03 No third party shall (a) circumvent, or attempt to circumvent, the prohibition under section 349.02; or (b) act in collusion with another person or entity for that purpose.
I know that doesn't exactly answer your question, and I won't answer it either, because every case is unique.
As we said earlier, however, third parties may include anyone except a candidate or party.
Canadian businesses probably receive foreign funds every day, from dividends or other sources. If it were perfectly clear that an organization with a very limited budget was suddenly able to incur extraordinary expenses that it would normally be unable to incur, the situation could be investigated by the Chief Electoral Office because it might involve one of the prohibitions I just cited. It all depends on the amounts and circumstances involved.