Friday, August 31, 2012

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch released its Report Card on the 2012 Democratic Good Government Election Platforms of the four main Québec political parties, the only election report card on these issues.

The Coalition Avenir Québec receives a D+ best grade of bad overall grades in the Report Card -- the Parti Québecois received a D, Québec solidaire an F and the Liberals an Incomplete.  A Dishonesty Downgrade of one full grade is also shown in the Report Card results because history has shown across Canada that usually only half of all promises are kept because of the lack of an honesty-in-politics law which is needed to effectively penalize promise-breakers and misleaders.

The grades are so low because none of the parties have promised to make enough specific changes to effectively stop: dishonesty in politics; politicians, their staff and government officials from making decisions in which they have personal interests; secret, unlimited donations (especially to party leadership and nomination candidates); secret lobbying; excessive secrecy in government; unrepresentative decision-making, and; waste.

The Coalition Avenir Québec received the best grade in three of the five categories of the Report Card (Honest, ethical government measures; Open government measures, and General government accountability measures).  The Parti Québecois tied with the CAQ for best score in one category -- measures to prevent waste.  Québec solidaire had the best overall score in the category of measures to ensure representative, citizen-driven government.

"All the Québec parties have failed to respond enough to high voter concern about democracy and trust issues," said Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch and its five national good government coalitions.  "The rules and enforcement to stop illegal parking in Québec are stronger, and the penalties higher, than the rules and enforcement for stopping political corruption.  The rules are so full of loopholes that they are like a yellow light that only warns people in Québec politics not to be unethical, instead of a red light that clearly tells them to stop what they are doing."

"The party leaders should not be surprised by the lack of support they will receive from voters on election day.  One can only hope that the parties will actually address these concerns when the legislature opens again so that everyone in Québec politics will, finally after 145 years, be effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively and to prevent waste," said Sommers.

"Undemocratic, bad government rules and processes usually produce bad decisions that fail to solve key problems in society, and so as long as provincial politicians fail to clean up the government, they will likely also continue to fail to clean up many other problems in Québec," said Sommers.

"Given the lack of a provincial honesty-in-politics law, and the lack of a clear pledge by any of the parties to pass such a law, voters should be wary of trusting any political promises," said Sommers.

The Report Card grades the four main parties' platform pledges based upon 16 sets of key changes in five areas that Democracy Watch and its coalitions believe are the cin and hanges that will most effectively require everyone in the Québec government to act honestly, ethically, openly, efficiently, representatively and, if they don't act in these democratic ways, easily and thoroughly held accountable.  In total, the 16 sets of changes add up to 100 key changes needed to the Québec government's democracy, ethics and accountability system.

The measures are a compilation of the proposals of the five nation-wide coalitions Democracy Watch coordinates (Government Ethics Coalition, Money in Politics Coalition, Open Government Coalition, Corporate Responsibility Coalition, Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition).  A combined total of more than 140 citizen groups with a total membership of more than 3 million Canadians belong to the coalitions, groups that work on anti-poverty, bank accountability, community economic development, consumer, corporate responsibility, environment, labour, social justice, women and youth issues.

Many national surveys over the past several years have shown that a large majority of Canadians support the 100 democracy, ethics and government accountability reforms set out in the Report Card, as do many commentators on democratic reform.  The federal government, and every province and territory and municipality across Canada, all have a similar list of 100 loopholes and flaws in their government systems (each with a slightly differect set of loopholes and flaws, depending on which have been closed or corrected in the past).

The 16 sets of changes, divided into five areas, all reflect the following five key elements for ensuring that large, powerful government institutions act responsibly and follow rules: 1. strong laws with no loopholes; 2. requirement to disclose details of operations and violations; 3. fully independent, fully empowered watchdog agencies to enforce laws; 4. penalties that are high enough to encourage compliance; and 5. empowerment of citizens to hold governments and watchdog agencies accountable.

The parties were given a grade ranging from A (Platform makes clear promise to implement proposal) to I (Platform does not mention proposal), with grades B for a vague or partial promise to implement the proposal, C and D for clear to vague promises to explore the proposal, E for mentioning proposal and F for mentioning the theme of the proposal.  Grades were averaged for each of the five sections, and the averages of section grades were used to calculate the overall grade for each party.

Democracy Watch graded the parties' election platforms by reviewing the platforms.  Statements by party leaders or representatives were not taken into account as they are not fully accessible to all voters, nor are they binding in any way on the party (as admitted by many party leaders) and as a result are even less reliable than promises made in the parties' platforms.

II. Open Government Measures
 5. Strengthening access-to-information system
 6. Exposing behind-closed-door communications
 7. Strengthening lobbying disclosure and ethics, and the enforcement system
 

IV. Representative, Citizen-Driven Government Measures
 10. Increasing meaningful public consultation
 11. Restricting power of Cabinet to make appointments
 12. Making the legislature democratic
 13. Ensuring free, fair and representative elections

V. General Government Accountability Measures
 14. Facilitating citizen watchdog groups over government
 15. Ensuring effective whistleblower protection
 16. Ensuring loophole free laws and strong penalties for wrongdoers

1. Requiring honesty-in-politics - Pass a law that requires all Cabinet ministers, MNAs, political staff, Cabinet appointees and government employees (including at Crown corporations, agencies, boards, commissions, courts and tribunals) nomination race and election candidates to tell the truth, with an easily accessible complaint process to a fully independent watchdog agency that is fully empowered to investigate and penalize anyone who lies. (Go to Voter Rights Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

2. Strengthening ethics standards for politicians, political staff, Cabinet appointees and government employees, and ethics enforcement - Close the loopholes in the existing ethics rules (including defining "private interest" and acceptable gifts and benefits in the Code of Ethics and Conduct, and lowering the disclosure threshold for all other income, assets and liabilities in the Code down to $1,000 (to match the political donation limit) and applying it to all politicians, senior staff and senior government officials, and usually requiring divestment of assets that cause conflicts (instead of so-called "blind trusts", and including requiring resignation and a by-election if an MNA switches parties between elections) and apply them to all government institutions (including all Crown corporations), and as proposed by the federal Department of Finance place anyone with decision-making power on the anti-corruption watch list of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac) so deposits to their bank accounts can be tracked, and; strengthen the independence and effectiveness of the ethics watchdog by giving opposition party leaders a veto over appointees, having the legislature (as opposed to Cabinet) approve their annual budgets, prohibiting the watchdogs from giving secret advice, requiring them to investigate and rule publicly on all complaints (including anonymous complaints and complaints from the public), fully empowering and requiring them to penalize rule-breakers, changing all the codes they enforce into laws, and ensuring that all their decisions can be reviewed by the courts.  (Go to Government Ethics Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

3. Making the political donations system democratic and ethical - Prohibit secret, unlimited donations of money, property or services by anyone for any reason to nomination and party leadership candidates (such donations are now only prohibited if given to election candidates); decrease the donation limit to about $200 annually (which is the amount that an average person can afford) and decrease any tax credit for larger donations; limit loans, including from financial institutions, to parties and all types of candidates to the same level as donations are limited; require disclosure of all donations (including the identity of the donor's employer (as in the U.S.) and/or major affiliations) and loans quarterly and before any election day; require disclosure of donations to party leadership and nomination race contestants; limit spending on campaigns for the leadership of political parties; maintain limits on third-party (non-political party) advertising during elections; lower the annual per-vote public funding of political parties that elect more MNAs than they deserve based on the percentage of voter support they receive (to balance out the total amount of funding (the annual allowance plus MNA budgets) that each party receives based on actual popular support) and; ensure riding associations receive a fair share of this per-vote funding (so that party headquarters don't have undue control over riding associations).  (Go to Money in Politics Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

• 1. le financement des partis politiques sera essentiellement public. Les montants octroyés par l’État aux partis politiques seront augmentés et demeureront en fonction de leurs résultats électoraux selon la formule actuellement prévue à la loi;
• 2. le don maximum à un parti politique sera de 100 $ excluant les frais d’adhésion;
• 3. le crédit d’impôt pour contribution politique sera éliminé;
• 4. le pouvoir d’enquête du Directeur général des élections sera renforcé;"

4. Closing down the revolving door - Prohibit lobbyists from working for government departments or serving in senior positions for political parties or candidates for public office (as in New Mexico and Maryland), and from having business connections with anyone who does, and close the loopholes so that the actual cooling-off period for former Cabinet ministers, ministerial staff and senior public officials is increased to 5 years (and 1-3 years for MNAs, their staff, and government employees, depending on their decision-making power) during which they are prohibited from becoming a lobbyist or working with people, corporations or organizations with which they had direct dealings while in government.  Make the ethics watchdog agencies more independent and effective by by giving opposition party leaders a veto over their appointment, by prohibiting the Commissioners from giving secret advice, by requiring the Commissioners to investigate and rule publicly on all complaints (including anonymous complaints), and by fully empowering and requiring the Commissioners to penalize rule-breakers (as opposed to having the National Assembly decide penalties), and dwatchby ensuring all decisions of the Commissioners can be reviewed by the courts. (Go to Government Ethics Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

5. Strengthening access-to-information system - Strengthen the access-to-information law and government information management system by applying the law to all government/publicly funded institutions, requiring all institutions and officials to create records of all decisions and actions and disclose them proactively and regularly, creating a public interest override of all access exemptions, giving opposition party leaders a veto over the appointment of the Commission, having the legislature (as opposed to Cabinet) approve the Commission's annual budgets, giving the Commission the power and mandate to order changes to government institutions' information systems, and to penalize violators of access laws, regulations, policies and rules, and removing the power of the government (under s. 145) to delay release of information after the Commission has ordered disclosure of the information.  (Go to Open Government Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

6. Exposing behind-closed-door communications - Require in a new law that Ministers and public officials and MNAs and their staff disclose their contacts with all lobbyists, whether paid or volunteer lobbyists.  (Go to Government Ethics Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

7. Strengthening lobbying disclosure and ethics, and the enforcement system - Strengthen the Lobbying Registration Act by including in it a Lobbyists' Code of Conduct, by closing the loophole that currently allows corporations to hide the number of people involved in lobbying activities, and by requiring lobbyists to disclose their past work with any Canadian or foreign government, political party or candidate, to disclose all their government relations activities (whether paid or volunteer) involving gathering inside information or trying to influence policy-makers (as in the U.S.) and to disclose the amount they spend on lobbying campaigns (as in 33 U.S. states), and; strengthen the ethics and enforcement system by extending the limitation period for prosecutions of violations of the Act to 10 years, and; by giving opposition party leaders a veto over the appointment of the Commissioner for lobbyists, by having the legislature (as opposed to Cabinet) approve the Commissioner's annual budget, by prohibiting the Commissioner from giving secret advice, by requiring the Commissioner to investigate and rule publicly on all complaints (including anonymous complaints), by fully empowering and requiring the Commissioner to penalize rule-breakers, by ensuring all Commissioner decisions can be reviewed by the courts.  (Go to Government Ethics Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

8. Increasing powers of Auditor General - Increase the independence of the Auditor General by requiring approval of appointment from opposition party leaders; increase auditing resources of the Auditor General by having the legislature (as opposed to Cabinet) approve the Auditor General's annual budget, and; empower and require the Auditor General to audit all government institutions (including the expenses of members of the legislature) and also audit projected spending (like the federal Parliamentary Budget Officer does), to make orders for changes to government institutions' spending systems, and empower the Auditor General to penalize violators of spending rules or Auditor General orders or requests for information.  (Go to Voter Rights Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

- « Un gouvernement souverainiste :

• a) Respectera la Loi sur l’équilibre budgétaire de façon à ne pas handicaper les générations futures par un endettement excessif. Le mot d’ordre : « responsabilité »;
• b) Procédera à une réorganisation majeure de l’État visant à le débureaucratiser, à le réorienter vers les services aux citoyens, en réduisant les niveaux hiérarchiques. Le mot d’ordre : « débureaucratiser »;
• c) Introduira une véritable culture des résultats dans les réseaux publics, par exemple en conditionnant l’octroi et le niveau des budgets et des primes au rendement par les résultats obtenus en matière de satisfaction de la clientèle et d’augmentation de la productivité de chacun des ministères, organismes et sociétés d’État. Le mot d’ordre : « des résultats »;
• d) Donnera, dans le cadre de paramètres très généraux, une vaste autonomie de gestion à chacun des ministères, organismes et sociétés d’État. Le mot d’ordre : « pas de mur à mur»;
• e) Révisera, à l’occasion d’un grand débat public, la politique de rémunération et des avantages sociaux concernant les hauts fonctionnaires du gouvernement et les directions des sociétés d’État. Le mot d’ordre : « transparence »;
• f) Ouvrira les appels d’offres informatiques aux logiciels libres et mettra en place dès son arrivée un groupe conseil, libre d’intérêts particuliers, pour le guider sur le virage à prendre. Cette simple mesure pourrait faire économiser des dizaines de millions au gouvernement, en plus d’offrir plus de flexibilité. Le mot d’ordre : « modernité ». »

9. Restricting government and campaign advertising - Empower a government watchdog agency to preview and prohibit government advertising contracting out if there is no reason to have the advertising developed by a contractor, and to restrict all advertising by the government and opposition parties and third parties in the six-month period leading up to an election.  (Go to Government Ethics Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

10. Increasing meaningful public consultation - Pass a law requiring all government departments and institutions to use consultation processes that provide meaningful opportunities for citizen participation, especially concerning decisions that affect the lives of everyone in Québec.  (Go to Voter Rights Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

- "Aspirant à la liberté politique, le Parti Québécois a pour objectif premier de réaliser la souveraineté du Québec à la suite d’une consultation de la population par référendum tenu au moment jugé approprié par le gouvernement."

11. Restricting power of Cabinet to make appointments - Require approval by opposition party leaders for the approximately 2,000 judicial, agency, board, commission and tribunal appointments currently made by the Premier, especially for appointees to senior and law enforcement positions, after a merit-based nomination and screening process.   (Go to Voter Rights Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

12. Making the legislature more democratic - Change the law to restrict the Premier's power to shut down (prorogue) the legislature to only for a very short time, and only for an election (dissolution) or if the national situation has changed significantly or if the Premier can show that the government has completed all their pledged actions from the last Speech from the Throne (or attempted to do so, as the opposition parties may stop or delay completion of some actions).  Give all party caucuses the power to choose which MNAs and in their party sit on which legislature committees, and allow any MNA to introduce a private member bill at any time, and define what a "vote of confidence" is in the law in a restrictive way so most votes in the legislature are free votes. (Go to Voter Rights Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

13. Ensuring free, fair and representative elections - Change the current voting law and system (the Election Act) to specifically restrict the Premier's power to call an unfair snap election, so that election dates are fixed as much as possible under the parliamentary system.  Change the Act also so that nomination and party leadership races are regulated by Elections Québec (including limiting spending on campaigns for party leadership), so that Elections Québec determines which parties can participate in election debates based upon merit criteria, so that party leaders cannot appoint candidates except when a riding does not have a riding association, so that voters can decline their ballot (ie. vote for "none of the above") and so Elections Québec is required to register voters and do more to maintain an accurate list of eligible voters, and to provide a more equal number of voters in every riding, and a more accurate representation in the legislature of the actual voter support for each political party (with a safeguard to ensure that a party with low-level, narrow-base support does not have a disproportionately high level of power in the legislature).  (Go to Voter Rights Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

14. Facilitating citizen watchdog groups over government - Require provincial government institutions to enclose one-page pamphlets periodically in their mailings to citizens inviting citizens to join citizen-funded and directed groups to represent citizen interests in policy-making and enforcement processes of key government departments (for example, on ethics, spending, and health care) as has been proposed in the U.S. and recommended for Canadian banks and other financial institutions in 1998 by a federal task force, a legislature of Commons Committee, and a Senate Committee.  (Go to Citizen Association Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

15. Ensuring effective whistleblower protection - Require everyone to report any violation of any law, regulation, policy, code, guideline or rule, and require all watchdog agencies over government (for example: Auditor General, Information and Privacy Commission, Ethics Commissioner) to investigate and rule publicly on allegations of violations, to penalize violators, to protect anyone (not just employees) who reports a violation (so-called "whistleblowers") from retaliation, to reward whistleblowers whose allegations are proven to be true, and to ensure a right to appeal to the courts.  (Go to Government Ethics Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)

16. Ensuring loophole free laws and strong penalties for wrongdoers - Close any technical and other loopholes that have been identified in laws, regulations, policies, codes, guidelines and rules (especially those regulating government institutions and large corporations) to help ensure strong enforcement, and increase financial penalties for violations to a level that significantly effects the annual revenues/budget of the institution or corporation. (Go to Voter Rights Campaign for details about Democracy Watch's proposals)