Information & Ethics committee  Thank you for that question. Madam Chair, the additional burden, from a regulatory standpoint, is not a lot. Here's the issue, as I see it. If you look at the preamble of the act, you are looking for a system in which the registration of paid lobbyists does not impede free and open access to government, and you have to finely balance that.

Information & Ethics committee  Madam Chair, to me, Canadians are Canadians. I don't know how you can take democratic rights away from one group of people. I feel strongly about this. I've worked in the political sphere all my life, and the toughest thing I had to do was to withdraw from the last campaign because of rule 8.

Information & Ethics committee  This is our essential message, Madam Chair. We think enforcement is key here, not only enforcement of the act overall, but also of the code of conduct. There are cases in which the Commissioner of Lobbying has taken quite a bit of time to get back to people she may be looking at who have potentially infringed upon the code.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much for that question. Madam Chair, from our perspective, we don't take a position on the five-year rule. It's up to the government to decide how it wants to regulate the activities of people in the government. We will work with whatever regulation the government comes up with.

Information & Ethics committee  It's a very tough standard, but again, it's not something that Hill + Knowlton feels is an issue with regard to the way it conducts its business.

Information & Ethics committee  My name is Michael Coates, and I'm the president and CEO of Hill + Knowlton in Canada. With me here today is Elizabeth Roscoe. She's the head of the public affairs practice here in Canada. Thank you very much, everybody. It's great to be here. We want to thank you for the opportunity to provide our input into the statutory review of the Lobbying Act.