Information & Ethics committee  I would recommend maintaining the standard of being concerned about perceived conflicts of interest as well, not just real conflicts of interest. Ultimately, in my mind, one of the purposes of this act is about ensuring public confidence in ethical government and ensuring public confidence in the fair exercise of public power.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much.

Information & Ethics committee  I think there are a few possibilities. My recommendation to the committee is one of them. There are also other suggestions, such as giving the commissioner the power to recommend that there be a reprimand and a debate in a committee or in the House of Commons. I don't think any minister wishes to see a debate in the House of Commons on his activities, nor does any minister wish to entertain questions on a reprimand from the commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  Certainly, that is definitely worth looking at. Part of the challenge under this legislation is that it captures so many different public office holders. There are very different concerns in being a minister of the crown, in being a staffer in that minister's office, and in being a public office holder somewhere else in government.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you. Very quickly, I don't believe in further bureaucratizing the act and bureaucratizing the work of public office holders so that you have to file disclosures on every ball cap that you get, as I believe Mr. Angus mentioned at a previous committee. Also, I simply don't think that if I were to invite any of you or a minister to come to speak at the University of Ottawa and gave a University of Ottawa hoodie it could be seen by a reasonable member of the public as somehow influencing you.

Information & Ethics committee  I think it is a good idea to give members of the public the opportunity or the right to file a complaint concerning something an elected official has done, if the commissioner thinks that that complaint meets reasonable criteria. Ultimately, we are talking about the public interest and public trust in the government's sense of ethics.

Information & Ethics committee  There has to be a criterion that the complaint must be a reasonable one if the commissioner is to accept a complaint from a citizen.

Information & Ethics committee  It is probably challenging, but you could probably do that. Again, I don't have an example offhand that I can think of, but you could certainly draw distinctions between lobbying government generally, and a broader or a longer restriction on any involvement with the ministry or the office that one used to work for or was responsible for.

Information & Ethics committee  Sure. I have a number of comments about the issue of gifts. First of all, we spend too much time talking about gifts. From my observation of the federal level and certainly what I saw at the provincial level in Ontario, I don't think it is a major problem. I would like to see the committee, and the act, and the commissioner spend more time on prevention, creating the ethical infrastructure sorts of things that I talked about.

Information & Ethics committee  I would start off with the caveat that in my case, my post-government employment was in academia. Leaving government service was very easy for me. Whether it was a one-year prohibition in Ontario, I had no involvement with government. In my mind the five-year prohibition is too strict, too severe.

Information & Ethics committee  I think the problem with that principle, and the distinction between an MP's role representing their constituents and an MP's role as a minister or a parliamentary assistant or minister of state, is, again, the public has difficulty distinguishing between those roles. They rightly see a person who represents a constituency, a geographic constituency, a riding, who also happens to be the minister with responsibility for a particular portfolio.

Information & Ethics committee  As I envision it, and as I would propose it, the minister responsible for the public office holder, or in the case of ministers of the crown, the Prime Minister, would be required to deliver a written response within a certain time period to the commissioner, which would be made public.

Information & Ethics committee  I think with the system now, no response is required. By requiring a response, I think it at least requires the person responsible for that public office holder to publicly be accountable for that public office holder.

Information & Ethics committee  I think there are some activities that could be violations of the existing Conflict of Interest Act which could also be violations of the Criminal Code. If they are that serious in nature, then they may be something the commissioner should simply refer to the police for investigation.

Information & Ethics committee  As I stated before, I'm generally not a proponent of the administrative monetary penalties idea. You heard from various other proponents as to what they thought were appropriate levels, and the reasons why they favoured administrative monetary penalties. I think whatever the level is, $500 is obviously too low.