Thursday, September 29, 1994

OTTAWA - Democracy Watch today criticized the federal government's Ethics Counsellor position today, claiming that he is in a fundamental conflict of interest that will prevent him from doing his job properly. Howard Wilson, appointed Ethics Counsellor in June 1994, testified today at the hearings on Bill C-43, An Act to amend the Lobbyists Registration Act.

"Mr. Wilson has been put in the position of counselling Ministers on their conflicts of interest, while at the the same time he is supposed to be an independent investigator and enforcer of the Conflict of Interest Code," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch, "He is wearing three different hats at the same time and is in a conflict of interest himself."

Howard Wilson is a government-appointed top bureaucrat; consulted with business associations and lobbyists on lobbying reforms; is potentially subject to the ethics code he is supposed to draft; has no enforcement powers; and will report to the Prime Minister, not Parliament. Jean Chrétien will decide which Minister's conflicts are investigated, not Howard Wilson. "In addition to being in a conflict of interest, Howard Wilson is a lapdog for the Prime Minister," said Conacher, "The Prime Minister has no no incentive to encourage Wilson to investigate because every corruption scandal he reveals will be politically costly to the government. Who will guard the guard in this situation?"

When introducing the lobbying reforms and ethics package on June 16, 1994, Prime Minister Chrétien said that "integrity is more than just nice words or a photo-op, it is a way of life." And Industry Minister John Manley said that "our system depends on trust." But the government must first restore honesty and integrity to the system before Canadians will trust them again, and part of trusting government is knowing that the government has put in place effective mechanisms to check the power it holds and allow the public to hold it accountable. "What law enforces itself? Without an effective enforcement mechanism, the government's integrity package is just nice words," said Conacher, "The Prime Minister may be ultimately accountable under the government's proposed system, but if conflicts of interest are not made public then Canadians won't be able to hold him accountable for anything." In its report Spring Cleaning: A Model Lobbying Disclosure and Ethics Package for Those Hard to Reach Places in the Federal Government, released in May 1994, Democracy Watch proposed that the Ethics Counsellor position should be restructured as an Ethics Commission. The proposed Ethics Commission would:

• have an odd number of members who are civic-minded and appointed through an open, merit-based application process;
• have members who are nominated by a "blue-ribbon" advisory panel;
• have members whose political activities are restricted;
• have the power to investigate, determine violations, and impose sanctions; and
• have the authorization to establish fines for late filings.

In addition, citizens should be given the right to complain directly to court if the Ethics Commission does not act within a reasonable time, and the government should enact a provision so that "whistleblowers" who provide information leading to convictions would receive half the fine imposed on the violator.

"The government said that they could not find a high-profile outsider to fulfill the position of Ethics Counsellor, so instead they appointed a high-profile insider. Why didn't they consider the idea of a group of civic-minded Canadians acting as the watchdog on government ethics," said Conacher, "The appointment of an independent Ethics Commission would have shown that the government has integrity and is interested in rooting out corruption in government."

"If the Subcommittee studying Bill C-43 rejects the idea of an independent Ethics Commission," said Conacher, "they should at least split Howard Wilson' job in two: one person within government who will counsel Ministers confidentially on how to avoid conflicts of interest; and another independent person outside of government who reports to Parliament and has the resources and mandate to investigate and enforce the Conflict of Interest Code and the Code of Conduct for Lobbyists. This method works in British Columbia and also in Ontario with the Officer of the Information and Privacy Commissioner."

Duff Conacher is the Coordinator of Democracy Watch. 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.