Madam Chair, our primary aim in this recommendation would be to make it clear that in conflict of interest matters, you have three categories of people. The first category is yourself, your spouse and your dependent children. It's what I call the “nucleus”, the closest people to you, including yourself. The second category would be friends and other relatives, as defined in the Members By-law. It's a second circle of people where you have to look more carefully at whether a conflict of interest is likely to arise. The third category is strangers. This includes anybody else for whom there is no reason to believe you would want to foster their interest.
That's what we're recommending. Just like in the Conflict of Interest Act, the friend is at the same level as the relative and the relative is more than the nucleus in the Conflict of Interest Act. All I'm suggesting is that maybe the House would like to consider doing the same thing vis-à-vis members of Parliament and the need to avoid conflicts of interest.