Tuesday, December 19, 2006

OTTAWA - Today, as politicians in the Ontario legislature debate raising their own pay based on the proposal introduced by Marie Bountrogianni, the Liberal Ontario Government’s Minister Responsible for Democratic Renewal, Democracy Watch called on Ontario politicians to focus on democratic reforms that are in the public interest rather than changes that are only in their self-interest.

"It shows just how out of touch, undemocratic and unethical many of Ontario’s politicians are when they use the excessively high pay of federal politicians as the reason to increase their own pay," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. "Instead of proposing to increase politicians’ pay and perks, why is the Ontario Liberal government not proposing to strengthen the Ontario government's overall accountability system by strengthening ethics rules and giving opposition party leaders a clear say in the appointment of key accountability and law enforcement watchdogs, and by making it illegal for anyone to make secret political donations or to lobby in secret, and for politicians to lie to the public and to hold secret meetings?"

Ontario’s Integrity Commissioner Colter Osbourne made an error in judgement when he recommended an increase in Ontario politicians’ pay because federal MPs are paid 40 percent more.  Instead, he should have pointed out that when politicians are paid at a level that puts them in the top two percent of income earners in the country (as federal politicians are), their pay is too high and has the undemocratic effect of putting politicians out of touch with the day-to-day concerns of voters.

Politicians who can easily afford private health care, private education for their kids, private security for their home, and a private retreat away from it all, and are dealing with private bankers and private shoppers, are far less likely to share most voters' concerns about problems with the public health care, public education and public services systems, problems caused by polluting companies, and problems caused by unfair service and gouging by banks, and by mutual fund, insurance, telecommunication and energy utility companies.

Ontario’s politicians should recognize that they are in a conflict of interest when voting on their own pay, and that if they are actually dedicated to public service they would set aside acting in their self-interest and focus instead on public interest changes to increase their own, and the government’s, accountability.

"Ontarians deserve better politicians much more than Ontario politicians deserve to be paid better.  Much more needs to be done to ensure that everyone in the Ontario government, and in Ontario's corporations, is effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, efficiently and representatively, and can be easily held accountable," said Conacher.

Democracy Watch and its four nation-wide coalitions propose the following 16 systemic changes that need to be made by Minister for Democratic Renewal Marie Bountrogianni and the Ontario Cabinet to make Ontario an effectively democratic society:

To empower citizens in their day-to-day relations with corporations and government:

• the government must help citizens band together and form broad-based, well-resourced, democratically structured citizen watchdog groups over the insurance, investment and utilities business sectors, and over public health care and government ethics and spending, which it can do at no cost using the method that has very successfully created such associations in several U.S. states (For details, view Democracy Watch's Citizen Association Campaign webpage);

• an honesty-in-politics law must be passed covering politicians, appointees and public servants and election campaigns, with complaints going to the Ethics Commissioner, and very high fines as the penalty for lying to Ontarians (To see details, go to Democracy Watch's Honesty in Politics Campaign);
• ethics rules for politicians, appointees, public servants and lobbyists must be strengthened to match the much higher standard in in the current Canadian federal ethics rules for Cabinet ministers, their staff, senior government officials and lobbyists (including a multi-year ban on becoming a lobbyist after leaving office, and a ban on lobbyists working on political campaigns or for the government) -- See link to the federal Cabinet ethics rules on the following webpage: http://www.parl.gc.ca/oec/en/public_office_holders/conflict_of_interest and to see the federal Lobbyists' Code of Conduct,  click here;

• the access-to-information system must be strengthened by ensuring all government institutions are covered by the law, ensuring that all officials must create a record of all decisions and actions, and making all exemptions to disclosure subject to a proof-of-harm test and public interest override (To see details, go to Democracy Watch's Open Government Campaign);
• the lobbying disclosure system must be strengthened by requiring all Ministers, junior ministers, and senior public officials to disclose who is lobbying them (To see details, go to Democracy Watch's Government Ethics Campaign)
• whether or not Ministers and senior officials are required to disclose who is lobbying them, lobbyists (whether paid or unpaid) must be required to register even for gathering information, to disclose total spending on lobbying campaigns, and to disclose past work with the government and political parties (To see details, go to Democracy Watch's Government Ethics Campaign);

• opposition party leaders must be given a veto over the appointment of all government accountability watchdogs (the Integrity Commissioner, the Information and Privacy Commissioner, the Auditor General, the Election Commissioner) after an independent, merit-based nomination process;
• all government accountability watchdogs must be given the power to penalize violators of the laws they enforce with high fines, and to order a clean-up of any government institution's operations if they systemically increase violations;
• a law must be passed requiring all government institutions to use meaningful public consultation methods when making all significant decisions;

• disclosure must be required of all donations of money, property, in-kind services and volunteer labour to candidates for political office, to candidates for leadership of a political party, to politicians, to appointees, and to public servants;
• as the federal government has done partially, donations from corporations, unions and other organizations of money, property, in-kind services and volunteer labour must be banned, and donations from individuals must be limited to a combined total of no more than $1,000 annually to each party and its MPPs or candidates;
• as the federal government has done, non-political parties (so-called "third-parties") must be restricted in how much they can spend during election campaigns to ensure that wealthy interests cannot dominate debates on issues nor overwhelm individual candidates whose spending is limited;

• anyone who "blows the whistle" about any violation of any law must have an agency to complain to that can investigate, protect them from retaliation and reward them if their allegations prove to be true (To see details, go to Democracy Watch's Government Ethics Campaign and Corporate Responsibility Campaign);
• for municipal governments, extend all of the measures set out above to them and they will act much more responsibly than they do currently (as will the Ontario government);
• Ontario corporations should be required to disclose detailed information about their records of compliance with labour, environmental, human rights, consumer, health & safety, criminal, competition and tax laws and policies to a government-run, accessible searchable, on-line database (To see details, go to Democracy Watch's Corporate Responsibility Campaign), and;
• Ontario corporations that violate the law should be banned from receiving any government subsidy, tax break, contract or grant (To see details, go to Democracy Watch's Corporate Responsibility Campaign).

Democracy Watch and the four nation-wide coalitions it coordinates will continue to push the Ontario government to make the meaningful, democratizing changes set out above.