Procedure and House Affairs committee  Oh, gosh, I don't know. It's not a number in the thousands or anything, but I do get letters from people from time to time, or calls.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Over the last five or 10 years, you mean?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In the last couple of years? Oh, I don't know...maybe 20.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not here to cast stones at anybody. What I am concerned about is applying my own act. I have certainly made the suggestion that there are some aspects of the accountability guide that could go into my act, and then it would be enforced by my office. But I do not comment on o

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Parliament.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I alluded to that. I have to go by the rules in my legislation, and there is no rule in the members' code. There is a rule in the act, which says that a minister is not allowed to personally solicit funds, and so I've always said it's a very limited rule in the act.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The minister cannot, nor can the parliamentary secretary—a public office holder generally—solicit, personally, funds if doing so would put him or her in a conflict of interest. Okay, that's the only rule I have.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, that's right. There is no rule against—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right. The conflict would be in the minister—no, I'm sorry. There is no conflict rule on that. Let me just think. I'm sorry, I've confused myself. It's in section 16, which says no public officer shall personally solicit funds from a person if that would place the public

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. You're right, that's why I've gone so far on occasion as to say you might want to put a rule that says ministers and parliamentary secretaries per se should not solicit funds.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's the converse argument, and it's a matter of finding a balance there. I don't advocate that they not be allowed to fund; I just say that's one way one could go. The fact of the matter is the old system that used to exist was that parties were funded to some extent. That doe

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, well, the only problem is that if there's some kind of a thing that.... As I said in my introductory remarks, the problem under my act and my regime arises after the fact, usually. If you've gone somewhere and received funding directly from somebody, and they come to your of

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Pardon? I didn't understand the question.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I will respond to complaints if they are valid. So I respond to the person who made the complaint. If I believe there is a real problem, I conduct an investigation.