Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank the committee for the invitation to participate as a witness in your five-year statutory review of the Lobbying Act, as is mandated by section 14.1 of the legislation. By way of introduction, I am a former member of Parliament. I served a

Information & Ethics committee  Sure.

Information & Ethics committee  There are two final points I'll make. There has been a lot of talk about what's called “Rule 8”: registered lobbyists' participation in elections and the electoral process. Good luck with that. It's a bit of a tricky one. What you are trying to do there is balance my rights as an

Information & Ethics committee  Thanks for the question. I think the point I was making is that if you can agree on what the objective of the legislation is, then work backwards: who is caught or where does the Canadian society benefit from transparency? Again, I think the point I was trying to make is that f

Information & Ethics committee  I'm not suggesting the solution; I'm just pointing it out. But I would say, what would be the harm...? If the idea is that Canadians need to know who is trying to move the balance point in a policy--for whatever reason--why is the public good served by them knowing only what Joe

Information & Ethics committee  Well, I think that's why if you move MPs out of the DPOH category, you solve that problem, because people who go and see the MP then aren't subjected to the communication filings at all.

Information & Ethics committee  Oh, I have to, absolutely--

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely, but if I'm seeing a public office holder--not a designated--as long as I'm duly registered, that communication I have is not part of the communication filing every month.

Information & Ethics committee  I certainly agree with the principle. I just don't know...and you've touched on it too: I mean, what can you reasonably expect to accomplish through a regulatory framework? Part of the problem with in-house lobbying is that a large company will have different people on differen

Information & Ethics committee  Well, you and I could be standing beside one another at the urinal and have a conversation and that would have to be registered. So I mean, that one, I think.... You people need to be streetwise. Is just going near a lobbyist going to pollute your minds to the sense that you're g

Information & Ethics committee  Okay. Sorry.

Information & Ethics committee  I will answer that, but I will say, too, that I have some sympathy for the commissioner, because I think the commissioner is in a position where they have implied responsibilities without the underpinning authorities. So I think the fact that the committee is going to look at thi

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think so. I teach government relations, so I've been down this road before. It's not shoving money in a paper bag. The analogy I use is that the legal system in this country is complicated, it's changing, and if you come in contact with it and get it wrong, the ramificati

Information & Ethics committee  No, it's not. What our firm did when the legislation was first passed was to designate a compliance officer in the firm. We conducted and documented training so everybody knew what the rules were. We had a very close relationship with the commissioner's office. They were extremel

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think so. But going back to Mr. Angus's point, it would be a situation where all of a sudden you capture a lot of groups that traditionally haven't seen themselves as engaging in lobbying; they may see it as advocacy, or whatever name they want to use. I think the probl