Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, first I wish to thank you for having invited me to meet with the committee so early in the new Parliament. As well, I wish to congratulate you, Mr. Goodyear, on your election to the chair of this committee. I also wish to congratulate Mr. G

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The first thing I want to say in response is that the policy is different for members of the House and for public office holders. It's not the same policy. It's different in two regards. To take the easier one first, one that does not require a great deal of thinking, there's

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would not automatically be--

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There are two issues. For the MP, it is to be a question of the value of the gift. You don't ask any further questions in the current policy; it's just the value of the gift. If it's high enough, it gets publicly declared. It's up to the public or whoever's interested in these th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That would be a matter for us to inform the Prime Minister that the public officer was not in compliance with the code. I have no sanctions to impose. It would be up to the Prime Minister to take whatever action he thought was appropriate.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There is. Let me give you an example of something that's not an ethical issue. There is a prohibition in the law against stealing. It doesn't keep people from stealing from time to time, and there are penalties involved if people are found guilty of doing that. I have no power t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am not sure and I don't want to answer you incorrectly. It would not be made public in general.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This matter that I raised a few minutes ago was an issue that arose during the committee meetings last year, during the last legislature, of having in the public registry certain information about the status of the members' files as a whole, not by member, but how many members ar

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's under tab 2 and it's the very last page in that tab.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I did point out that the sponsor travel report has been referred to this committee; it's my understanding. And in that report, which came out in January last year, there are two relatively small but not trivial issues that need to be thought through, and that is the question of w

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right. That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There is one very big thing, which came up at the end of my opening remarks, which is the inquiry process. There was some concern last year, I think quite legitimate and appropriate concern, that the process for inquiry was not adequately detailed and adequately outlined so peopl

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, it is April.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They are not. They are for the public office holders but not for the members of the House. This was a matter that came up last year, and we did canvass the members of the House to ask them whether they thought this would be an appropriate next step. They were not, in fact, intere