Information & Ethics committee  In terms of the provinces and territories, there are eight jurisdictions now that do require these meetings. There may be more, but as of a year or two ago, there were eight. There are two reasons this was not made part of the system for the House of Commons and the cabinet. You have 308 members, and you are going to have more in the future.

Information & Ethics committee  We mean apparent to the reasonable person informed of all the relevant facts. That's a legal concept. Basically it means that people, under the act, need to take additional precautions to ensure that the reasonable person doesn't perceive them to be in a conflict of interest situation.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. This isn't actually my recommendation. It comes from Oliphant. It deals with the definition of employment and the Conflict of Interest Act. There's no clear definition right now. In my brief, if you have a copy of it there, I've quoted from the Oliphant commission.

Information & Ethics committee  You will get that there. I've quoted from the Oliphant commission in terms of what they think the definition should be. Just so it's clear for everybody, another part is that post-employment provisions should clearly refer to work done in Canada or anywhere else, not just in Canada.

Information & Ethics committee  If you look at the decisions of the various ethics commissioners across the country, plus the annual reports of the ethics commissioners, which really summarize in such a way so as not to violate confidences, you'll get, from the advice they're giving to people who come to them for advice, I think a pretty good idea of what is meant by “friend”.

Information & Ethics committee  I haven't thought about that aspect nearly as much as Greg Levine has. It really is important for the commissioner to have enforcement powers, but as Mr. Levine pointed out, there need to be appeal mechanisms and safeguards. Also, I really agree with Greg Levine: with regard to cabinet, it really should be up to the Prime Minister to enforce.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup. It's a great pleasure to be here today. I really appreciate the invitation. I'm particularly pleased, because there are at least two members of this committee from my home province of Alberta. I recently discovered that my dad was dentist for the member for Red Deer, as well as for me.