Tuesday, January 25, 2000

OTTAWA - In letters sent today, Democracy Watch called on Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and the federal Liberal Party to disclose immediately any donations they have received in 1999 or 2000 from any person or organization benefitting from government funds such as the Transitional Jobs Fund.

"Sunshine is a good disinfectant against undue influence over the government," said Aaron Freeman, Board Member of Democracy Watch and author of Cashing In: Money and Influence in Canadian Politics, to be published in April this year. "Canadians have a right to know who is donating to the political process, especially if they are also benefiting from government funds."

Specifically, Democracy Watch called for immediate disclosure of all donations to the Prime Minister, his riding association, and any related trust fund from any recipient of a government grant or contract. In addition, Democracy Watch called on the Liberal Party to disclose donations from people or groups involved in the same situation.

In 1997, for example, several Liberal donors received grants from the federal Transitional Jobs Fund (TJF). An internal audit released last week by Human Resources Canada of a sample of 459 files for projects that received grants from the TJF found that, among other things, 87% showed no evidence that the file was being supervised and 25% had no description of the activities being funded.

Under current disclosure rules, donations to political parties do not have to be made public until six months after the end of any year; MPs and riding associations do not have to disclose donations received outside of election campaign periods; and donations to trust funds and leadership campaign funds never have to be disclosed. As a result, many donations can remain secret; 1999 donations to the Party will not be made public until this July; and donations to the Party made at any time in 2000 will not be made public until July 2001. The government's current bill to amend the Canada Elections Act, Bill C-2, will do nothing to close these disclosure loopholes and delays, which do not exist in many other jurisdictions.

"Favoured individuals and groups could easily be flowing secret donations to the Prime Minister and the Liberals in return for receiving government funds," said Freeman, "The Prime Minister and the Liberal Party should not only disclose whether any such donations have been made, but also ensure that Bill C-2 is amended before it is passed this spring to close the undemocratic loopholes in our political finance system that allow secret donations."