I think, Mr. Speaker, there is a cooling off period for public office holders before they should be able to enter into lobbying. I think that is the recommendation. As we extend the duty and the obligation of parliamentary secretaries to fall under the Lobbyist Registration Act, I believe the same bar, prohibition and cooling off period should apply. By extension, that is probably the intent of the motion put forward by the Liberals today.
If a member is going to fall under the rubric of the Lobbyist Registration Act, the member should be subject to the same cooling off rules. A member cannot simply leave his or her office as a member of Parliament one day and then the next day open up shop as a lobbyist trying to trade off the contacts and the privileged access a member may have developed through the years as a parliamentarian. Again, this is based on the same principle that the public does not want members to use the time they spent in public office for their personal and private gain unless the information being used is accessible to the public at large.