Information & Ethics committee  No. Failing to register, or lobbying when you're prohibited, is an offence under the Lobbying Act. When I investigate, the moment I have reasonable grounds to believe that there was lobbying that was unregistered, or that someone lobbied when they were prohibited, I must suspend and refer to the RCMP.

Information & Ethics committee  The RCMP takes it over. They decide whether or not to investigate and to pursue and to lay charges.

Information & Ethics committee  In fact, we would need clarity with regard to the rules concerning gifts.

Information & Ethics committee  It is quite prescriptive.

Information & Ethics committee  The concept of the current Lobbyists' Code of Conduct was very much based on what is reasonable. I'm not sure that what is reasonable for one person is also reasonable for the other. So there may be abuses. I try to make the code clear with clear indications of what is beyond the acceptable limits.

Information & Ethics committee  It is, indeed. Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  Every other agent of Parliament has that clause. I think it was simply an oversight in the Lobbying Act. It's in the performance of our work, obviously, but we do important work. I do send files to the RCMP. I do believe that my staff and I should have the same protection that my colleagues have.

Information & Ethics committee  It has not impeded my work at all. I do my work. To me, I think it is an oversight. I have not felt threatened. There has been no situation in which I think that clause would have allowed us to do more work. It really was just a flag that it should be in there, like any other agent of Parliament.

Information & Ethics committee  They are very important, and I think it is time to start looking at them.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, that's it.

Information & Ethics committee  It's interesting; we had asked for these five employees in the IT world back in 2019, hoping it would be in the budget of 2020. It wasn't. We got the money in 2021. My next review, which will probably be a budget ask in the next year, I think would be for another five employees.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  That's a good question. Given that there are 8,000 lobbyists and that I have 32 files, we can say that there is compliance. There is no doubt about that. However, that does not mean that the transparency of the current regime could not be improved. A lot of lobbying activities can take place without ending up in our registry.

Information & Ethics committee  If consultants or organizations communicate with any of you and they reach the threshold, they have to register. Organizations, and even foreign governments, are represented by consultants and are on the Registry of Lobbyists. If you want to know whether unregistered lobbying is taking place, I have no such records.

Information & Ethics committee  Exactly.