Procedure and House Affairs committee  In the leadership race, if you were to get more than $10,000 in that last week, then you'd have to do one final disclosure. You could do the same thing for candidates. You're talking about $100 donation limits, so if they're not getting significant amounts in, the disclosure wouldn't have to happen.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, sure. I'm human.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Democracy Watch filed complaints with the federal Ethics Commissioner and the Commissioner of Lobbying about the Council of Canadian Innovators' appeal to its members, and also its lobbying activities overall. They're registered to lobby Chrystia Freeland's department. They haven't lobbied her directly.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, that's right.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  He hasn't donated in quite a long time—he lends his name—but yes, I think if Dan Aykroyd called, for a whole bunch of reasons I would take the call.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay, but they are making a donation—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's true, but to get the maximum deduction, you have to donate the maximum amount. You are benefiting from being able to make that maximum donation. You can't get it unless you make that donation.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That was in 2013, after Elections Quebec disclosed its audit, which showed that $12.8 million was likely funnelled between 2006 and 2011. They also had, of course, a huge corruption scandal, much of it rooted in the political donation system at the time.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It can't legally be funnelled anymore. They've made.... The federal system legalizes funnelling and makes it very simple to do, because it's so wide open. Elections Quebec and the police in Quebec have not charged many of the people who gave that $12.8 million. They can't. They go to the executive and say, “Was that your money?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's a tiny baby step, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If the amount that they can give is more than an average voter can afford, it's an undemocratic and unethical system right away. It violates the fundamental principle of one person, one vote. It's like saying if a person doesn't have as much time to volunteer for a party, they should have more votes on election day, a whole bunch more.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, and the position of Democracy Watch and the coalitions is that volunteer labour should be tracked and disclosed. That's important, because another way that funnelling occurs is by giving people time off from their work, pretending they're not paid for the time off, and then paying them with a Christmas bonus for taking that time off and going out and helping a party or a candidate.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Just to respond to that, essentially what you just said was that governments or others would discriminate in hiring, I suppose, and other issues based on which political party you volunteered with. You are saying that the Public Service Commission of Canada, and across the country, is not—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The CBC article from 2013 in which the Elections Canada spokesperson is saying they were doing this is linked in the news release that I've submitted to the committee today.