Mr. Speaker, if we study economics, we study incentives. There are good incentives and bad incentives. Unfortunately, at the time the ethics rules were put in place, it was thought that they would not have to be used very often. Members of Parliament would not want to be named and shamed or to be on the wrong side of ethics rules. Therefore, we have smaller fines.
However, after nine years of the Liberal government, it is clear that having these fines or being named is not really being taken seriously. As such, it is clear to me that we need to look into increasing the penalties so that we can provide that incentive and people know that there are real consequences to violating our ethics rules.
This government needs to know that there are real consequences to defying the will of Parliament and that those consequences will be felt when we get to an election.