Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by mentioning that the suggestion made by the member that there were lobbyist fees being received at the same time by the president of the Mint may not be the case and he may want to check his facts before he repeats that.
Knowing that he is the chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, and that the committee has dealt substantively with this motion before the House today, I believe there is one area where the member may assist the House in understanding a little more carefully the concept of public interest and what constitutes public interest to the extent that it would override certain exemptions.
There are certainly some examples I could give. One example would be the Ethics Commissioner, who reports to Parliament and is an officer and agent of Parliament. He is involved in certain matters which, although they may be of interest to the public, I am not exactly sure would constitute public interest.