Procedure and House Affairs committee  They have to provide a first interim financial return upon reaching that threshold, then a second interim financial return on September 15 during a fixed election year. Then there is one other Liberal motion that would also impose a third interim financial report three weeks before polling day and a fourth interim financial report one week before polling day.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I haven't looked at the form recently, but the bank account requirement would apply to every third party that reaches $500.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, the bank account requirement would apply to every third party that reaches the $500 threshold. So, there are a few associated costs with being a third party that is required to register.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. As the bill is written now, as amended by earlier motions, foreign third parties cannot incur any of the following expenses during the pre-election period. When we get to the other division or section of part 17, there is an equivalent provision for expenses incurred during the election period.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, but during these two periods they cannot incur any expenses for these purposes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, and only if it's incurred outside of the election and pre-election period.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They could not spend money for these purposes, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's simply that in English each paragraph breaks down the elements separately. An example would be, “(c) If the third party is a group, no person who is responsible for the group” is blah, blah, blah. In the French version, everything is included in a single paragraph. It's just a matter of legislative drafting.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This would be doing exactly that. I'm not commenting on the policy here, but from a drafting perspective, I think we would still have some hurdles to go over. This motion would reframe the definition of pre-election period. Sorry, I'm looking at the French version and I'm trying to translate into English at the same time in my head.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes and no.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The new division 0.1 of part 17 of the act would prohibit all third parties, including foreign third parties, from using foreign money for the purpose of partisan activities, advertising and election surveys. What the provision that has been carried already does not do is prohibit a foreign third party from incurring some expenses outside of the election and of the pre-election period, but in order to incur these expenses, it would always need to fund these expenses with Canadian money.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. We discussed a similar motion in the context of proposed part 11.1 earlier, the prohibitions related to voting. The comments I made at the time still stand. This would extend the regime to some Canadian entities, even if they are not managed or directed by Canadians. These entities still have a legal existence in Canada.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —or they can just make the information public.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  A typical case is a third party that would want to influence parties. They could have a web page that is focused on a particular issue and include a lot of data, including survey data.