Information & Ethics committee  Well, so many different countries are at different stages of development in this world. In many countries, the whole problem is corruption, huge corruption. We don't really have that problem here in Canada. I get a number of visitors from various countries asking me about corruption, and they're speaking on a whole different level from what we're dealing with.

Information & Ethics committee  Sure.

Information & Ethics committee  It would just be a matter of looking at the specific problems and writing an exception or adjusting it slightly.

Information & Ethics committee  I had to determine what was sufficiently small to fall within the exception, and I've set that rule at $20,000. The reason I set it there was that you can't get a trustee to take a case that has less than a $20,000 value, basically, so it seemed a sensible limit.

Information & Ethics committee  With respect to gifts, which invitations to dinners are, it entirely depends on who it's from and what it's for. If you're invited to an expensive dinner by your boyfriend, it's fine, but if you're invited to an expensive dinner by somebody who wants you to make a decision for them, then it may not be so fine.

Information & Ethics committee  Do you mean the act or the MP code? Actually, it's gifts, whichever one you're asking about.

Information & Ethics committee  Do you mean complaints about how the act applies?

Information & Ethics committee  I think there probably are some. There probably could be some improvements in the act. The act is not bad, though, but there are small areas in the interpretation of the act that from time to time I come upon that are difficult cases. There's not much discretion in that act. That's the other change, perhaps, from the code.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, it would be easier to have discretion in some areas, but there are advantages to having clearer rules as well, which is why I have some focus on establishing guidelines so people know where I'm going. There's room for interpretation even within the four corners of the act as well, but it's the difficult cases.

Information & Ethics committee  Actually, you're going to have a chance to speak to the lobbying commissioner in a little while. That's under the Lobbying Act, which I don't administer. She should speak to that.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  I think Parliament can ask me to do one too.

Information & Ethics committee  If the government wants to catch them, it would have to amend the legislation.

Information & Ethics committee  I haven't been asked to give it, but I could do it.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much.