Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the Committee. Chairman and Members of the Committee. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the first Annual Report of the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying. I am accompanied today by senior counsel, Bruce Bergen, and by Pierre Ricard-

Information & Ethics committee  In terms of the process, we have a description on our website of the type of information we would like to see. When an application comes in for review, we will look at their past employment, résumés, whether they happen to know any information on their future employer, and so on.

Information & Ethics committee  That's my understanding.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  I have actually received ten applications to date. Two applications dealt with individuals who had left prior to the act coming into force, so even though they were comprehensive applications, there was no authority for me to grant an exemption. Two individuals withdrew. I denied

Information & Ethics committee  Those are 600 monthly communication reports. We verified about 6% of the 5,000 entries last year and found that more than 90% of them were accurate. The errors were more on wrong dates, spelling mistakes of the individual's name, or they were over-reporting in terms of, say, putt

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  The department is subject to the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act.

Information & Ethics committee  They could put in a request and we would go through the process of analyzing it. Because they are public office-holders, I would assume that some of the information would be permissible to give out. However, according to the Privacy Act, if the information is of a personal nature

Information & Ethics committee  Actually, that communications function, I'm pleased to say, is actually in place. Registrants can go in now. The way I view the Lobbying Act and the need to report on the monthly communications is that it should be as accurate as possible. If there have been communications that

Information & Ethics committee  It's more like factual errors, and that's what we're trying to correct. In terms of whether it's specific companies, I don't think we've noticed a trend at this point. That's something I can get back to the member on, if she's interested, Mr. Chair.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you. On the question of expanded powers, previously the act talked about the fact that I could look into doing investigations under the code of conduct. It wasn't clear under the act that I actually had the ability to look into infractions of the act. You may recall that

Information & Ethics committee  It is good to have a team. It's great.

Information & Ethics committee  I did. Bruce Bergen is my legal counsel.

Information & Ethics committee  That's right. He did.