Information & Ethics committee  If someone is being paid by somebody, and the organization that is paying them may benefit from the lobbying, I would consider that to be someone who needs to register. I'm very much aware of the facts that you're raising and I would prefer leaving it at that for now.

Information & Ethics committee  They're not absolved.

Information & Ethics committee  So far this year, I've referred three matters. Absolutely, if the evidence gives reason for me to believe that an offence has occurred, I will refer the matter. I've referred 10 matters since I've joined this office. The threshold is not very high, so when I have reason to believe that an offence has occurred, once I've started looking into it, I will refer the matter.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  If I can clarify on that point. It would never be set aside without my reporting to Parliament at some point. I want the committee to know that I am very much aware of what's of interest to you, and when I'm able to report to Parliament on these issues, I will.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think I'm the right person to ask. My job is to determine whether a designated former public office holder, who is prohibited from lobbying, did any lobbying. Unfortunately, that is all I can say about that.

Information & Ethics committee  Again, I can't comment specifically on that case. What I am willing to say, however, is that there seems to be some misunderstanding of the obligations in the Lobbying Act. A few times, I did hear the WE Charity representatives say that the government had contacted them, not the other way around.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  I cannot answer that question, unfortunately.

Information & Ethics committee  No, there is no registration threshold. The act is written in such a way that you have to be a paid employee or a paid consultant, and you have to be communicating on behalf of your employer. Therefore, there is no threshold with respect to salary. If someone is clearly a volunteer for an organization, then they don't need to register.

Information & Ethics committee  I have a team of only three individuals in client services. In fact, I have a team of 28 employees, so we're very small. These three employees were extremely busy helping out the 1,700 new registrants who had really no idea how to do this. We were front and centre in helping them to register.

Information & Ethics committee  Good afternoon.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely.

Information & Ethics committee  Each commissioner has their own specific mandate and their own obligations when it comes to confidentiality. However, I will say that the officers of Parliament have met twice since the pandemic began to gauge how employees were doing and see how everyone was feeling. We also wanted to see how we could help one another, so we discussed some ideas.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, absolutely. My apologies, but I hadn't quite understood your question. As you can see from my statistics, I initiated 16 preliminary assessments this summer. I certainly stay on top of what all the parliamentary committees are doing. I also watch committee meetings, which I find quite interesting.