Mr. Speaker, in answer to the first question about loopholes, I would not want to suggest there are no loopholes. That is why bills have to be examined carefully at committee.
However, there is something that the committee, during its examination of Bill C-21, should consider. As written, Bill C-21 states that if candidates at the local riding association level fail to repay any debts they incurred during their candidacy, the registered association or party would then be responsible for their debts. That is a good thing, so there cannot be any debts written off at the local level.
Bill C-21, however, does not provide for any debts incurred by leadership candidates of a registered federal party to be backstopped by the federal party. In other words, if someone runs for the leadership of the Liberal Party, and we know that the Liberals will be entering a leadership campaign shortly, whoever wins that campaign is obviously going to incur some debt. All candidates do. If the candidate becomes leader of the Liberal Party and still has unpaid debt after several years, Bill C-21 does not allow, or does not oblige, the federal Liberal Party to pay that debt. It does at the local level but not for leadership candidates at the federal level.
We may want to examine that at committee to make the same provisions at the federal leadership level as we do at the candidate level.
With respect to whether it is retroactive, right now leadership candidates from 2006 in the Liberal campaign have this debt encumbrance. Bill C-21 would allow the new rules to come into effect for existing debt, but everything else would be on a go-forward basis. Bill C-21's provisions would only apply after it comes into effect, with the one exception being existing debt.