Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  I will, absolutely. There was Janine Sherman, who was the chair and PCO deputy secretary to the cabinet, senior personnel and public service renewal. There was Ms. Yaprak Baltacioglu. She's the secretary of the Treasury Board. There was Ms. Sabina Saini. She was, at the time, ch

Information & Ethics committee  I will first start by saying that I think lobbying is absolutely required. It is a legitimate activity. I think Canadians should feel absolutely better served, knowing that lobbyists are approaching all of you who are making decisions with the options—

Information & Ethics committee  I'm going to make it to your point. The Lobbying Act requires lobbyists to register. There is not an obligation, but in the act, there is a requirement for the commissioner to verify with you, public office holders, that the information that lobbyists put on the registry is acc

Information & Ethics committee  Wonderful. Okay.

Information & Ethics committee  I did not say it was discretionary, quite the reverse. I think that if an investigation has begun and it's a mandatory investigation, it should continue. I'm not sure that I would have the discretion to stop it.

Information & Ethics committee  What I will commit to is making sure that I have the authority to continue, and if I do, I will. I would have to look into whether or not there's a legal issue, and I have not looked into that matter. I don't want to act illegally either, so if I'm not authorized to continue, I

Information & Ethics committee  I will continue the investigations that are ongoing.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely.

Information & Ethics committee  Are you serious with your question?

Information & Ethics committee  I'll tell you how they keep me grounded. I've had demanding work. I've had a heavy workload during most of my career, and my children have kept me level-headed, kept me grounded. What we do is important work, but when I'm watching their soccer games and their hockey games, I'm

Information & Ethics committee  They keep me in the real world, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  Certainly. I will simply not be influenced by government action. Since 2000, I have been a public servant but only worked with institutions that were independent of government; in other words, institutions that were reviewing the actions of government.

Information & Ethics committee  Oh, absolutely.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, they paid my salary, but my work has always been to ensure that the advice I gave and the way I performed my own duties, and the way I treated my staff and everything else, was impartial, not being influenced by the government of the day, by policies.