Procedure and House Affairs committee  The requirement is in the legislation that we do make available, without specifying numbers, for example, income over $10,000. Any asset or liability over $10,000 has to be included. It's referred to but its amount is not referred to. The same would be true for the member. If you have a mortgage, we don't refer to the amount of the mortgage.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would. Our understanding of the legislation is that we have to provide both the nature and the source of the income. Therefore, it turns up on the disclosure summary.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm certainly willing to consider it, for sure, and I'll let you know. Mr. Benson would like to make a comment as well.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can't really respond to that question in a detailed way because it depends on the context in which the information arises or the issue arises. The reason I would decide to commence an inquiry would be because the information that came to me, one way or another, seemed to me to be convincing enough that an issue of public ethics was at stake and should therefore be investigated.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's under tab 2 and it's the very last page in that tab.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I did point out that the sponsor travel report has been referred to this committee; it's my understanding. And in that report, which came out in January last year, there are two relatively small but not trivial issues that need to be thought through, and that is the question of what we mean by “not wholly paid”, which has come up a number of times in the sponsor travel thing, and also the question of how we treat travel that is, let's say, sponsored by an NGO but actually paid for from some government subsidy or other, so the actual end payer is really the federal government, but in an indirect way.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right. That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There is one very big thing, which came up at the end of my opening remarks, which is the inquiry process. There was some concern last year, I think quite legitimate and appropriate concern, that the process for inquiry was not adequately detailed and adequately outlined so people could understand what the process is when an inquiry gets launched.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, it is April.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would not automatically be--

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There are two issues. For the MP, it is to be a question of the value of the gift. You don't ask any further questions in the current policy; it's just the value of the gift. If it's high enough, it gets publicly declared. It's up to the public or whoever's interested in these things to decide whether that's appropriate or not.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That would be a matter for us to inform the Prime Minister that the public officer was not in compliance with the code. I have no sanctions to impose. It would be up to the Prime Minister to take whatever action he thought was appropriate.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There is. Let me give you an example of something that's not an ethical issue. There is a prohibition in the law against stealing. It doesn't keep people from stealing from time to time, and there are penalties involved if people are found guilty of doing that. I have no power to impose sanctions on anyone.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am not sure and I don't want to answer you incorrectly. It would not be made public in general.