Information & Ethics committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I'm truly honoured to be here today and humbled to be nominated for the position of Commissioner of Lobbying. I have often appeared before committees, including this one, but certainly not in this chair. I am pleased to have th

Information & Ethics committee  I take this role very seriously. I had the opportunity and the privilege of working with two commissioners, the Information Commissioner and the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. Personally, I think that I could leave my mark in the context of the three existing mand

Information & Ethics committee  Upon my arrival, one of my priorities will certainly be to become more familiar with the current priorities of the Office of the Commissioner. My purpose is not to disrupt everything. Another priority will be to establish my credibility, since the people who currently work at th

Information & Ethics committee  I read the report of the committee and I am also very familiar with the recommendations of the current commissioner. I believe it would be quite irresponsible of me to put forward recommendations. That said, one of my priorities will certainly be to see what has been done and wha

Information & Ethics committee  That is a good question. Since I have worked with two officers of Parliament, I am very much aware of the need to be impartial, to be fair and to have very high ethical standards. I am also very conscious of the need to be very precise in the analyses we perform, because people

Information & Ethics committee  Do you mean exemplary practices in my work?

Information & Ethics committee  Certainly. I am not an expert on lobbying since I am not yet in the position, but I certainly know that as an officer of Parliament, you have to create a network of people who do the same kind of work in order to be well informed and have all of the necessary information to do th

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  It is likely too early, but I will tell you that I am very much aware of Commissioner Dawson's recommendation. I am also aware of Commissioner Shepherd's not necessarily being in agreement with that. Here I am, being nominated for Commissioner of Lobbying and not Conflict of Inte

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, absolutely.

Information & Ethics committee  I can give you my opinion on that only because when I was with the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, there were administrative penalties there. I do believe it can act as an incentive. Right now the powers under the Lobbying Act are quite limited. It's really, at the

Information & Ethics committee  On the amount...absolutely, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.