Wednesday, May 11, 1994

OTTAWA - Democracy Watch today released its second report, Spring Cleaning: A Model Lobbying Disclosure and Ethics Package for Those Hard to Reach Places in the Federal Government and called on the federal government to enact the reforms set out in the report.

"In this spring season the Liberal government should fulfill its campaign promise to Canadians to clean-up and restore honesty and integrity in the federal government," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch, "At stake, as the Liberal Party acknowledged during last fall's election, is their ability to govern effectively."

The 102-page report (co-authored by Conacher and Craig Forcese, a Founding Director of Democracy Watch) reviews lobbying disclosure and ethics laws across North America and details 52 model legislative reforms based on these laws. The proposed reforms set the standard by which the Liberal government's ethics package should be judged. Spring Cleaning contains a Model Lobbying Disclosure Law and model gift-giving and post-government employment provisions, along with several charts covering key provisions of lobbying and ethics laws across North America.

A key finding of Spring Cleaning is that of the 192 parties contacted about lobbying reforms last fall by Assistant Deputy Registrar General Howard Wilson, only 28 represent citizen groups, while 87 business associations, 50 major corporations, and 27 government relations consultants were contacted. "The consultation on lobbying reforms illustrates that the Liberals have not yet figured out that if they want to fulfill their promise to listen to the people of Canada, they have to provide opportunities for Canadians to talk with the government during all government consultation processes," said Conacher.

"Only consulting lobbyists about proposed lobbying reforms is like only consulting gun owners about a proposed gun control law," said Conacher, "They both have targets they are aiming at, and they don't want any restrictions placed on their activities, even if those restrictions are in the public's interest."

Spring Cleaning recommends the following key changes to the current lobbying disclosure and ethics laws in Canada, most of which are based upon provisions currently in force in many U.S. jurisdictions:

• require government consultation processes to provide meaningful and equal opportunities for citizen participation;
• set up an electronic registry containing details on lobbyists and make it available to the public for free in libraries across Canada;
• require public officials to disclose their contacts with lobbyists;
• expand the definition of lobbyist and disclosure requirements for lobbyists;
• require lobbyists to pay registration fees;
• prohibit contingency fee arrangements for lobbying;
• eliminate the tax deduction for lobbying expenses;
• restrict lobbyists political contributions and activities;
• require MPs to disclose, and in some cases divest from investments they, their spouses, and their dependents hold;
• put in place an open, merit-based process for government appointments and contracts;
• enact stringent restrictions and disclosure requirements for gift-giving to public officials and employees, especially by lobbyists;
• increase the "revolving door" restriction for Ministers and senior public officials from 2 to 5 years, and for other public officials and employees from 1 to 2 years;
• restructure the registrar as an independent Ethics Commission with powers to investigate and enforce the lobbying and ethics laws;
• give complainants the right to take their complaint to court if the Commission delays taking action;
• enact a general anti-avoidance provision and extend the limitation period from 1 to 2 years;
• enact a "whistleblower" provision to aid in the enforcement of the provisions.

"Effective lobbying disclosure and ethics reforms should enable Canadians to know the who, what, where, when and how of government decision-making, without needing the skills of a private investigator or the budget of a large media outlet," said Craig Forcese, "The measures we are proposing would make it much easier to discover who is influencing our public officials, and would restrict undue influence of these officials."

"Effective enforcement is also key to effective reforms," said Forcese, "Reports of a partisan appointment by the Liberals for the position of Ethics Counsellor and the appointment of a panel of Reform MPs to regulate the activities of Reform MPs illustrate that Canada's elected officials are still confused about the definition of 'conflict of interest' and unclear about how ethics laws must be enforced."

"In a modern, working democracy, a culture of impartiality and public service must define public life," said Conacher, "and this public-interest standard must not be abandoned in favour of lobbyists' and public officials' self-interested concerns about the burdens of maintaining this standard. Governing with integrity means not only governing openly but also that, for citizens, there are no hard to reach places in the government."

Democracy Watch is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes citizen participation in public affairs, government and corporate accountability, and ethical behaviour in government and business.

The proceeds from the sales of the #1 Canadian best-seller Canada firsts: Ralph Nader's Salute to Canada and Canadian Achievement, co-authored by Duff Conacher, Ralph Nader and Nadia Milleron, have been donated as start-up funding to Democracy Watch.