The past 139 years of Canada's federal government has proven one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt -- the government's accountability system is the scandal, and as long as the system is full of loopholes politicians, political staff, Cabinet appointees, government employees and lobbyists will often act in scandalous ways.

The wave of public concern about the loopholes in the system has being growing for the past two decades, as billions of dollars have been wasted, many highly questionable contracts have been awarded to ruling party supporters; more than 25 Cabinet ministers, and many ministerial staff and MPs, violated federal ethics rules and almost all were let off the hook, and dozens of Cabinet ministers, political staffers and government employees have become high-paid corporate lobbyists or work with companies they dealt with while in government.

 As if this was not enough, several complaints about lobbyists violating ethics rules have yet to be ruled on even though they are years old; several annual reports by two Information Commissioners have detailed systemic, ongoing violations of the open government law; dozens of ruling party supporters have been appointed by Cabinet to positions they are not qualified for, and; who knows how many government officials (likely hundreds) have witnessed wrongdoing and kept quiet because of lack of whistleblower protection.

And then, of course, there was the sponsorship scandal, with more than $40 million still missing.

Better late than never, the federal Conservative Party responded to voters' concerns and pledged in its election platform more than 50 measures to close many of the loopholes in the federal government accountability system.  To a lesser extent, the the NDP, Bloc Québecois and Green Party also responded with their own election pledges, each promising about 20 measures aimed at cleaning things up.

 The Conservatives pledge to pass their measures in one comprehensive "Federal Accountability Act" that will:

• make it illegal to make secret donations;
• shut down the revolving-door through which senior politicians and public officials cash in on their inside access by becoming lobbyists for wealthy private interest groups;
• increase public access to government information at all government institutions (including about decision-making processes, the actual state of government finances, and survey results);
• strengthen the role of MPs in reviewing Cabinet ministers' budget proposals and spending records;
• make Cabinet appointments more based on merit and give MPs a review role;
• make government contract spending more based on merit;
• protect whistleblowers effectively, and;
• last but certainly not least, strengthen the independence from Cabinet and powers and resources of key Cabinet and accountability watchdogs such as the Auditor General (and internal auditors in each department), Ethics Commissioner, Information Commissioner and Registrar of Lobbyists.

While these changes will make it more effectively illegal for federal politicians and public officials to act unethically, secretively or wastefully, the Conservatives' package leaves some key holes, as follows (where applicable, the other federal parties that have pledged to close these holes are mentioned):

• enactment of an "honesty in politics" law (as the NDP generally proposes, including requiring MPs who switch parties between elections to resign and run in a by-election);
• giving all key watchdogs the power to fine and publicly name worngdoers (the Conservatives only pledge to give the Ethics Commissioner this power);
• to prevent secret donations from corrupting federal government politicians and officials, place federal officials with decision-making power on the anti-corruption watch list of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac) so that large amounts of money flowing into their bank accounts are tracked (as proposed by the federal Department of Finance);
• as the NDP has proposed, require lobbyists to disclose how much they spend on each lobbying campaign, and their past work with any Canadian or foreign government, political party or candidate, and clearly ban lobbyists from working with any government, political party or candidate;
• introduce and pass a "meaningful public consultation" law to ensure Canadians have a strong and direct say in government policy-making (as in Sweden), and;
• as the Bloc proposes, take away the power of the Prime Minister to appoint the front-line regulators of federal elections (called returning officers) and give it to the head of Elections Canada.

Canadians deserve no less from this new government, and new Parliament.

In two recent columns (January 14, January 17), Jeffrey Simpson has made many vague, negative claims based on little or no evidence, about the Conservatives' pledged plan of more than 50 specific measures to strengthen the federal government's accountability system.  Mr. Simpson neglects to note that the NDP, Bloc Québecois and Green Party have also made about 20 accountability promises each, many of which are general pledges that, if spelled out in detail, would come close to matching the Conservatives' total.

Mr. Simpson claims that some of the Conservatives' proposals are "half-baked" and that overall the plan will "impede sensible government" and make it "less efficient" and "be worse" than what actually ails Ottawa.

In his second column, Mr. Simpson claims that the plan is "overkill" because the sponsorship program scandal did not point to "systemic flaws" in the federal government's system of accountability and instead was caused by the Cabinet decision to place program outside the system.

First, obviously the accountability system has a systemic flaw if the Cabinet can create a $150 million spending program that is not subject to the accountability system.  Secondly, the clean-up pledges made by the Conservatives, NDP, Bloc and Greens are obviously not just in response to the sponsorship scandal, but instead are a response to the past two decades of scandals which have revealed many gaping loopholes in the system.

In other words, Conservatives, NDP, Bloc and Greens have all realized that the federal government's accountability system is the real scandal (and, as Mr. Simpson notes, so have most Canadians), and that until the system is strengthened in many key ways scandalous activities by politicians, Cabinet appointees, political staff, government employees and lobbyists will continue largely unchecked.

For those who have forgotten the past two decades of federal government, here is quick summary: billions of dollars have been wasted, according to many Auditor General reports, and many highly questionable contracts have been awarded to ruling party supporters; more than 25 Cabinet ministers, and many ministerial staff and MPs, have violated federal ethics rules and almost all were let off the hook, many by a key ethics watchdog that the Federal Court ruled was biased because the Prime Minister controlled him.

Dozens of Cabinet ministers, political staffers and government employees have become high-paid corporate lobbyists or work with companies they dealt with while in government; several complaints about lobbyists violating ethics rules have yet to be ruled on even though they are years old; several annual reports by two Information Commissioners have detailed systemic, ongoing violations of the open government law; dozens of ruling party supporters have been appointed by Cabinet to positions they are not qualified for, often at enforcement agencies that enforce laws that apply to Cabinet, and; who knows how many government officials (likely hundreds) have witnessed wrongdoing and kept quiet because of lack of whistleblower protection.  And then there was the sponsorship scandal, of course, with more than $40 million still missing.

Even if the many past scandals had not provided ample evidence of the need for strengthening measures, these parties' proposed changes are also clearly based on fundamental principles of democratic government and drawn from the research results and experience of many experts and other jurisdictions in the world (including Canadian provinces).  Parties proposing changes to prevent future scandals should be applauded, not criticized.

According to Mr. Simpson, it is half-baked:

• to make it illegal to use secret donations as a means of influence over politicians;
• to shut down the revolving-door through which senior politicians and public officials cash in on their inside access by becoming lobbyists for wealthy private interest groups;
• to increase public access to government information (including about decision-making processes, the actual state of government finances, and survey results);
• to make Cabinet appointments more based on merit and give parliamentarians a review role; to make government contract spending more based on merit;
• to protect whistleblowers effectively, and, last but certainly not least;
• to strengthen the independence from Cabinet and powers and resources of key Cabinet and accountability watchdogs such as the Auditor General, Ethics Commissioner, Information Commissioner and Registrar of Lobbyists.

Not only most federal parties and Canadians and political commentators disagree with Mr. Simpson, but also the Supreme Court of Canada in 1996 ruled in a federal corruption case that: "given the heavy trust and responsibility taken on by the holding of a public office or employ, it is appropriate that government officials are correspondingly held to codes of conduct which, for an ordinary person, would be quite severe" and that "the magnitude and importance of government business requires not only the complete integrity of government employees and officers conducting government business but also that this integrity and trustworthiness be readily apparent to society as a whole."

Mr. Simpson would have been on much stronger ground criticizing the Conservatives and all other parties for failing to provide any meaningful guarantee that they will keep their promises, as the lack of an honesty-in-politics law in Canada means that none of the parties should be trusted, not matter how comprehensive, detailed and effective their promised plans clean-up and strengthen the federal government's accountability may be.

The past 139 years of Canada's federal government has proven one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt -- the government's accountability system is the scandal, and as long as the system is full of loopholes politicians, political staff, Cabinet appointees, government employees and lobbyists will often act in scandalous ways.

The wave of public concern about loopholes in the system has being growing for the past two decades, as billions of dollars have been wasted, many highly questionable contracts have been awarded to ruling party supporters; more than 25 Cabinet ministers, and many ministerial staff and MPs, violated federal ethics rules and almost all were let off the hook, and dozens of Cabinet ministers, political staffers and government employees have become high-paid corporate lobbyists or work with companies they dealt with while in government.

As if this was not enough, several complaints about lobbyists violating ethics rules have yet to be ruled on even though they are years old; several annual reports by two Information Commissioners have detailed systemic, ongoing violations of the open government law; dozens of ruling party supporters have been appointed by Cabinet to positions they are not qualified for, and; who knows how many government officials (likely hundreds) have witnessed wrongdoing and kept quiet because of lack of whistleblower protection.

And then, of course, there was the Adscam sponsorship scandal, with more than $40 million still missing.

Better late than never, the federal Conservative Party responded to voters' concerns and pledged in its 2006 election platform more than 50 measures to close many of the loopholes in the federal government accountability system.  To a lesser extent, the the NDP, Bloc Québecois and Green Party also responded with their own election pledges, each promising about 20 measures aimed at cleaning things up.

The Conservatives pledged to pass their measures in one comprehensive "Federal Accountability Act" that will, among other things:
 

• make it illegal to make large or secret donations;
• increase public access to government information at all government institutions (including about lobbying on decision-making processes, the actual state of government finances, and survey results);
• strengthen the role of MPs in reviewing Cabinet ministers' budget proposals and spending records;
• make Cabinet appointments more based on merit and give MPs a review role;
• make government contract spending more based on merit;
• protect whistleblowers effectively, and;
• last but certainly not least, strengthen the independence from Cabinet and powers and resources of key Cabinet and accountability watchdogs such as the Auditor General (and internal auditors in each department), Ethics Commissioner, Information Commissioner and Registrar of Lobbyists.

Already a couple of the Conservatives' measures on lobbying (which affect lawyers who act as lobbyists most directly) have been enacted as part of the new Conflict of Interest and Post-Employment Code for Public Office Holders (which covers Ministers, some ministerial staff, and some Cabinet appointees and came into effect on February 6th).  The ban on these public office holders leaving office and becoming a lobbyist has been extended to five years, and any exemption from the ban granted by the federal Ethics Commissioner will now have to be issued publicly, with reasons included.

The Conservatives' have also pledged to ban contingency fee/success arrangements (presumably for all lobbying efforts) which will help reduce the incentive for lobbyists to use unethical means to win the law changes or contracts for which they are lobbying.

In addition, the Conservatives' pledged to require ministers and senior public officials to record their contacts with lobbyists, which will help close the many loopholes in the current lobbying disclosure system that hide the extent of corporate lobbying especially.

To strengthen enforcement, the Conservatives promise to make the Registrar of Lobbyists an independent Officer of Parliament, a key move because currently the Registrar is completely under the control of the Industry Minister (and can be fired at any time for any reason by the Minister).  Democracy Watch has an ongoing court challenge of the current structural bias of the Registrar's position.

The pledge by the Conservatives to extend to 10 years the period for which violations of the federal Lobbyist Registration Act can be investigated and prosecuted is also key because currently the limitation period is two years and all a lobbyist has to do is hide their activities for a couple of years and they escape prosecution.

The Conservatives have also promised to reduce the limit on individual donations from $5,000 to $1,000 and to ban corporate, union and other organizations from making donations, and to require all donations to be disclosed and to ban politicians and candidates from taking secret donations or having secret bank accounts.  These measures will also close loopholes that lobbyists can currently use to have unethical, undue influence over politicians.

As well, the Conservatives pledges to strengthen other key areas of the federal government's accountability system (as listed above) will strengthen the lobbying regulation and ethics enforcement system, as a more open government with greater accountability that makes spending decisions based more on the merits will be less likely to be unduly, undemocratically, and unethically influenced by lobbyists (at least that's the theory, as no Canadian government has implemented all 52 measures that the Conservatives have proposed, no one knows exactly how the federal government's operations will be changed by these measures).

While these changes will make it more effectively illegal for federal politicians, public officials and lobbyists to act unethically, secretively or wastefully, the Conservatives' package leaves some key holes, including in the area of lobbying regulation.

For example, the NDP proposed in their election platform to require lobbyists to disclose how much they spend on each lobbying campaign (as is required in 33 U.S. states), and their past work with any Canadian or foreign government, political party or candidate, and to enact a strict ban on lobbyists from working with any government, political party or candidate.

The Lobbyists' Code of Conduct should be included as part of the lobbying law, and should be strengthened by adding specific rules that draw clear lines around what lobbyists can and cannot do in terms of relationships and working with politicians, candidates, political parties and governments (currently there are only general rules in the Code, and while it is Democracy Watch's position that these rules restrict these relationships no one knows for sure (Democracy Watch has had several test complaints working their way through the system for the past few years)).

The Registrar should also be given the power to penalize violators with high fines and bans on them continuing as lobbyists (the Conservatives have only pledged to give the Ethics Commissioner this power to penalize, which will help because the Ethics Commissioner enforces the cooling-off period that prohibits former politicians and public officials from becoming lobbyists).

Hopefully, for all Canadians' sake, the Conservatives will be open to expanding their historic government ethics and accountability package so that all of the loopholes are closed in the area of lobbying regulation and all other areas, working with the other federal parties who have made pledges in some areas the Conservatives' missed.

Canadians deserve no less from this new government, and new Parliament.