Information & Ethics committee  There are two sides.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, I can tell you that all of us agents of Parliament have an obligation to conduct our investigations in private. Should there be a will that we do share, I even think that sometimes investigations might be more effective if we could do interviews at the same time or whatever, if in fact they're the same.

Information & Ethics committee  I found an almost perfect level of compliance. The current rule under the code of conduct allows lobbyists to give gifts in cases where the public office holder is allowed to accept them. By the way, in the next version, that will not be the case. In light of that, because lobbyists were permitted to give the gifts of sponsored travel, what I ended up verifying as well was whether or not, while the lobbyists were travelling, they did lobby.

Information & Ethics committee  I have referred 11 in four and a half years.

Information & Ethics committee  So far, none.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm sorry. What was...?

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Sure. There is no requirement to renew the code. That was a decision on my part, because after five years of dealing with it and identifying some issues, some concerns I had with the code, I thought it was time to do it. I had also heard from the lobbyists that at the end of the day our guidance document was clearer to frame their behaviour than the actual rules themselves, so I thought, okay, we have a problem here.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. I hope so.

Information & Ethics committee  It is.

Information & Ethics committee  I suspect that I won't get that many comments this time around. I think what will happen is that I will be sending it to you for your review, because those are the steps, if you choose to review. If I get permission, I may end up sending it to you over the course of the summer. That's if I'm allowed.

Information & Ethics committee  It's about clarity and making it a lot more prescriptive than it is now. That's really what you're going to see. It's straight to the point. It has very specific rules. We've really enhanced the expectations we have from lobbyists. We've really defined it. There is no guidance required.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm sorry. I didn't hear the first part of your question.

Information & Ethics committee  It was one this year.