Thursday, November 21, 2002

OTTAWA - Today, at a hearing of the House of Commons Industry Committee (at 3:30 pm, Room 536 Wellington Building) the Government Ethics Coalition presented its proposals for strengthening Bill C-15 which amends the federal lobbying law.

"The federal Liberals proposed lobbying law changes are not enough to end secret lobbying or unethical ties between lobbyists and politicians," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch and Chairperson of the Government Ethics Coalition.

The key loopholes still remaining in Bill C-15 need to be closed through the following measures:

• Ministers and other senior public officials should be required to disclose on an searchable Internet site who is lobbying them (both paid and unpaid lobbyists) to ensure all lobbying is exposed;
• lobbyists should be required by law to disclose how much they spend on a lobbying campaign, and past work with candidates, political parties and governments;
• lobbyists should be prohibited by law from working in senior campaign positions for any politician or candidate for public office, and from working for the government or having business ties to anyone who works for the government;
• the prohibition on lobbying the government for ex-Ministers and ex-senior public officials should be increased to 5 years;
• the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct and politicians' and public servants' ethics codes should all be changed into laws so they have greater force, and the Ethics Commissioner should be empowered to levy high fines as a penalty for violations and to protect anyone who "blows the whistle" on violations of the laws; and
• the proposed new Ethics Commissioner should also be empowered to investigate alleged violations of the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct and the public servants' ethics code, and the public should have the right to file complaints and all Ethics Commissioner rulings should be made public.

"The Liberals proposed half measures show clearly that they see nothing wrong with the federal government being driven behind closed doors by wealthy corporations and their high-powered lobbyists," said Conacher.

Democracy Watch's nation-wide, 30-member group Government Ethics Coalition, which represents more than 2 million Canadians, will push for these stronger and more comprehensive measures to be included in the changes that are finally made to the federal lobbying law over the next year.