Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would like to make a few comments on that. The first comment is the current obligation for the Chief Electoral Officer to publish the information that is found at paragraph 382(1)(a) of the act. That is, as Trevor was referring to, the publication in the manner that the Chief E

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. Seriously, Mr. Graham, I don't have any specific comments. I'll only say that in recent years—and I don't have specific cases to note—the Supreme Court of Canada has repeatedly reinforced the importance of solicitor-client privilege in Canada, and I don't think that anyone

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I'm sorry. The solicitor-client privilege is about protecting the communications between the client and the solicitor.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  To this, I may add that Trevor was very thorough in his lists, so all these reports are provided at sections 533 to 537 of the Canada Elections Act.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, paragraph 44(g) of the Interpretation Act provides that when an action is replaced by another and the substance of the amendment is the same, then the previous regulations or the previous determinations made under the previous text are deemed to have continued under the new

Procedure and House Affairs committee  From PCO's perspective, I don't have any technical comment. This would create a new requirement for the Chief Electoral Officer to inform the Speaker of the House of Commons of these new categories. It would create a new delay in their implementation, but it's a policy decision.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not sure I understand your question.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This amendment is about reporting, so it does not impose a new cap. The cap that is being enacted for the pre-election period and the election period remain in other provisions, but this amendment would make it mandatory for third parties who are required to provide a financial r

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, yes and no. The way we define the various types of expenses.... For example, we do not define election advertising expenses as expenses incurred during the election period. We define them as expenses incurred, I think, “in relation to” the election period. That wording was

Procedure and House Affairs committee  But this goes much further.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This would require third parties to disclose every single partisan expense they've made since the last general election.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would require all third parties who have an obligation to report after a general election to report on all of their partisan activities since the last general election. A third party who did not incur expenses during a pre-writ and a writ period would not have to report anythi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't want to get into that without looking at specific provisions of the act, but there are specific provisions about loans. This is a case that is being dealt with by the act already.