Information & Ethics committee  Thank you. Stay safe.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  Currently, even if everybody we speak to is a lobbyist, that's okay. They have the requirement to register. Right now what's happening is that organizations and corporations don't need to register if it's not a significant part of their work. In order to register, they need to calculate whether or not they've spent about 30 hours in a month preparing and meeting with you.

Information & Ethics committee  Recommendation 3 is making the requirements the same, I believe.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't always have the order of them perfectly in my mind, but yes. The problem right now with the registry is that corporations do not have to list employees who lobby less than 20%. In other words, in the registry, an organization has to list everybody who lobbies, but a corporation does not have to list those who lobby less than 20%.

Information & Ethics committee  What I'd be interested in—and British Columbia has done this—is the monthly communication report. When in the month they say, “We've met with this particular designated public office holder”, it would be interesting to see whether this communication happened during lobby day. Was this during sponsored travel?

Information & Ethics committee  I'm actually at 11. I did one in the first year, six in my second year, three in the last year, and I just did one recently.

Information & Ethics committee  There are four.

Information & Ethics committee  I was going to say that the idea is that once you're registered, you're subject to the code of conduct. The code of conduct actually says that you shouldn't be lobbying anyone with whom you have a relationship that could create a sense of obligation. The code would kick into force in relation to any personal relationships that come into play.

Information & Ethics committee  When the Lobbying Act applies, the status of the relationship is irrelevant. If someone communicates and lobbies, they are supposed to register. The idea of the relationship—

Information & Ethics committee  In the last year we doubled the preliminary assessments. This assessment is that first stage of whether or not we go into an investigation. The workload is heavy, and I only have a team, with the director, of three investigators and two supports for the investigation team. One of them takes care of all the exemptions.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm going to answer yes to that. I have not turned anything away. I don't think I ever would. I would find.... Some things would have to give, but we look into everything that comes in.

Information & Ethics committee  It hasn't really affected my operations. What happened in the past is that our key results didn't really reflect the way that we did things, so we just amalgamated. We have one program, and the program is to support and do the mandate that's required under the Lobbying Act. Then we have a few people who support that in corporate services.

Information & Ethics committee  In the registry client services, there are four. In the compliance, the registration team, there are six, so that's 10.

Information & Ethics committee  Then we have a team that takes care of outreach and all of the reports that are required by government. We're subject to all the same requirements as any other big department. Really, there are four people who are.... There are two finance people. Then we've allocated one support for IT.