Monday, November 22, 2004

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch called on Prime Minister Paul Martin and the federal Liberal Cabinet to stop letting corporate lobbyists off the hook by finally approving Bill C-15 and by making the watchdog for lobbyists independent of Cabinet control.  Bill C-15, which changes the federal Lobbyist Registration Act, was passed by Parliament in June 2003, but needs Cabinet approval to be in force.

 Bill C-15 makes several changes to the federal lobbying law, all of which mean that more lobbyists, (especially corporate lobbyists) will be required to register and disclose more details about their lobbying activities.  Among other changes, Bill C-15 includes the following new measures:

• requiring lobbyists to register even if they are only gathering information about a government decision-making process (currently, they only have to register if they are attempting to influence a government decision);
• requiring lobbyists at corporations to register if their collective activities amount to more than 20% of their work time (currently, corporate lobbyists only have to register if each person's lobbying amounts to more than 20% of their time), and;
• requiring lobbyists to disclose past work with the federal government (currently, lobbyists are not required to disclose any information about past work).

In addition, while Martin ensured passage in spring 2004 of Bill C-4 (originally introduced by Jean Chrétien when he was Prime Minister), Martin failed to correct a fatal flaw in the bill.  Bill C-4 eliminated the Ethics Counsellor position and created a more independent Ethics Commissioner to enforce ethics rules for Cabinet ministers and MPs.

The flaw is that Bill C-4 also made the Registrar for Lobbyists the enforcer of the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct, even though the Registrar remains under the control of a Cabinet minister and as a result cannot fairly and impartially enforce the Code (which contains rules that restrict lobbyists' relationships with Cabinet ministers and other public officials).  Exactly the same as the former federal Ethics Counsellor, the Registrar can be dismissed at any time for any reason by the Industry Minister, cannot set his own budget, and cannot hire his own staff.  Because of his lack of independence in these ways, the Ethics Counsellor was found to be systemically biased by the Federal Court in a July 2004 ruling in Democracy Watch's court case against the Ethics Counsellor.

"The Registrar for Lobbyists is as much under the control of Cabinet, and therefore as biased, as the former Ethics Counsellor," said Conacher. "Until the Registrar is made  fully independent lobbyists friendly to the Liberals will very likely continue to be let off the hook when they break ethics rules."

Democracy Watch and its nation-wide Government Ethics Coalition also believe that the following changes are needed to increase the disclosure of, and ethics of, the activities of lobbyists:

• 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 (as in more than 30 U.S. states);
• lobbyists should be prohibited by law from working in senior campaign positions for any politician or candidate for public office (as in Maryland and New Mexico), and from working for the government or having business ties to anyone who works for the government;
• the prohibition on ex-Ministers and ex-senior public officials lobbying the government should be increased to 5 years (as in the U.S. federal government);
• 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;
• the 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 clear right to file complaints and all Ethics Commissioner rulings should be made public, and;
• the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct and politicians' and public servants' ethics codes should all be changed into laws so they have greater force.