Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you kindly, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this committee of the House of Commons.
I have two or three points I'd like to raise. First—
I would like to ask a question of Mr. Mazzuca.
You talked about privacy and the fact that the previous bill could cause difficulties with privacy.
However, as you know, our salaries are public. While we are not public servants, our salaries are still public. There is no problem with that because we receive money from the people.
Furthermore, under the Rand formula, all central labour organizations receive somewhere in the neighbourhood of $500 million in contributions from Canadian taxpayers. That's akin to taxation authority.
Why do you think it is acceptable for the salary of an MP to be public information—everyone knows what it is and it's always a hot topic come election time—whereas a union boss's salary, which is disclosed to union members, is not information that is available to the people who contribute some $500 million annually to the coffers of those unions?