Information & Ethics committee  I don't think I can comment on that. A decision was taken by members and by senators as to how the situation would work, and there it is. I walked into a given situation and I don't think I have any choice as to how it ends.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I would think ethical standards are ethical standards and they should be applied to everybody. Actually, my understanding is that the Senate code had some amendments over the last year that made it quite a lot more similar to the MP code than it was before.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I do.

Information & Ethics committee  No, I think we're fine with our code. The MP code could probably stand some improvement too, but no. In fact, they've adopted a lot of the stuff that was in your code. I would suggest maybe it's going in that direction rather than the other.

Information & Ethics committee  I'll turn that one over to Denise.

Information & Ethics committee  When I took on the job as Ethics Commissioner, I think there was a fair bit of unhappiness in the office because they had drifted for a number of months without a leader, or with an acting leader, because there was a period of time before I was appointed. So I think there was probably a larger proportion of people leaving during that period than there would usually be.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  No. I think it's hard enough the way it is now. I wouldn't want any more impediments.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think so, but I really have no way of knowing.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think so, but I don't know for sure.

Information & Ethics committee  It's given to the Speaker because we are administering something for the House of Commons. I don't think it would be acceptable for the House of Commons to be subjected to the overview of somebody in the executive branch. We manage both the MP code and the act for public office holders.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, but they need certain skills, of course.

Information & Ethics committee  You have to weed through a whole bunch of applications rather than a smaller number.

Information & Ethics committee  It's $80,000, I'm told.

Information & Ethics committee  It's interesting that you raise that question. Just this afternoon I was discussing with my staff that we put an open competition out recently for two of those positions. There were public who applied, but we ended up staffing both positions from within the public service. So I'm wondering if that very sentence is as true as I thought it was when I did it a day or two ago.