ISSUE: Strengthening the Federal Corporate Responsibility and Bank Accountability Systems

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No matter what issue or problem in Canada concerns you, making the largest corporations and banks in Canada more responsible and accountable will help win the changes and solutions you are seeking.

A total of 155,000 corporations and 40 banks that the federal government regulates are not effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, responsibly or to prevent waste.

Incredibly, the laws and enforcement of parking a car illegally are stronger than most corporate responsibility and bank accountability laws and enforcement systems in Canada, and in some cases the penalties for parking illegally are higher than for corporate executives who act dishonestly, unethically, secretively, irresponsibly or wastefully!

No federal political party has focused on Canada's corporate responsibility system in the past 140 years.  Most recently, the federal Liberals had majority power from November 1993 to June 2004, and then after the June 2004 election controlled a minority of seats in Parliament, and then the federal Conservatives have controlled a minority of seats in Parliament since the January 2006 election until they won a majority in the spring 2011 election.

The federal Liberals did not do nearly enough between 1993 and 2004 to ensure that Canada's largest corporations and banks are effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively or to prevent waste, and the federal Conservatives have also not done enough since January 2006.

In fact, the federal Conservatives used the public's money through the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation to bail out Canada's big banks by buying $70 billion of home mortgages from the banks, and also used the Bank of Canada and other subsidy programs to help the banks, for a total of almost $200 billion in subsidies in 2009 -- yet they did not require anything from the banks in return.

And while the federal New Democratic Party (NDP), the Bloc Québecois Party, and the Green Party have focused more than the Liberals and Conservatives on strengthening the federal corporate responsibility and bank accountability systems, they have also not made these changes a top priority issue.

Canada's largest 1,000 corporations spend more than $25 billion annually on their lobbying and promotion efforts (advertising etc.), including on about 10,000 full-time lobbyists across the country.  In contrast, there are only about 500 full-time citizen group lobbyists, and citizen groups spend only about $50 million annually on lobbying and promotion.  As a result, Canadians must all work together and push hard if there is any hope to counter the corporate lobby and win key corporate responsibility changes.

There are many key corporate responsibility and bank accountability measures that are under ongoing review by the Canadian federal government.  No matter what issue or problem concerns you, strengthening the federal corporate responsibility and bank acountability systems will help you win the changes and solutions you are pushing for.

The federal Bank Act and Insurance Companies Act are under an ongoing review by the federal government, with changes planned for 2012.

The federal Canada Business Corporations Act, under which 155,000 of Canada's largest corporations operate (including half of the largest 500 corporations), is also under an ongoing review by the federal government.

And, all of the federal political parties have an ongoing review of priority issues and proposals they can make for changes now, or in their next election platforms.

For all of these reasons, now is a key time to send a strong message to the leaders of all the federal political parties that you are fed up with the dishonest, unethical, secretive, unrepresentative, and wasteful actions of corporate and bank executives and you want key changes to make everyone involved in Canada's large corporations and banks act honestly, ethically, openly, responsibly and to prevent waste.

On corporate and bank honesty, ethics, openness, responsibility and waste prevention reforms, the federal government has not heard from citizens or citizen groups enough to counter the power of corporate lobby groups.  It is important that you let the government know that you want significant corporate responsibility reforms.

Canada's biggest corporations spend more than $25 billion annually on their lobbying and promotion efforts (advertising etc.), including on about 10,000 full-time lobbyists across the country.  In contrast, there are only about 500 full-time citizen group lobbyists, and citizen groups spend only about $50 million annually on lobbying and promotion.  As a result, Canadians must all work together and push hard if there is any hope to counter the corporate lobby and win key corporate responsibility changes..

Democracy Watch coordinates the Corporate Responsibility Coalition, made up of 31 groups from across Canada representing over 3.5 million Canadians, which pushes the federal government to strengthen corporate responsibility in Canada as part of Democracy Watch's Corporate Responsibility Campaign.

Democracy Watch also coordinates the Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition, made up of 100 groups from across Canada representing over 3.5 million Canadians, which pushes the federal government to strengthen bank accountability in Canada as part of Democracy Watch's Bank Accountability Campaign.

Democracy Watch also has a Citizen Association Campaign, which pushes federal and provincial governments to use an innovative method for creating broad-based, well-resourced, citizen-funded and citizen-run associations to act as watchdogs over many corporate sectors.  Both the Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition and the Corporate Responsibility Coalition propose that creating such watchdog groups is a key step to increasing corporate responsibility and bank accountability in Canada.

PLEASE SEND A LETTER to all the federal political party leaders right now calling for key corporate responsibility and bank accountability changes.

The SAMPLE LETTER set out below provides a detailed list of changes -- all of which Democracy Watch and the 2 nation-wide coalitions Democracy Watch coordinates are pushing for to make Canada's largest corporations and banks responsible and accountable in key ways.  You can easily pick and choose from among the list of changes to highlight the ones you think are most important, or send a letter demanding that all of the changes be implemented by the federal political parties.

To be most effective, please use the SAMPLE LETTER only as a model for writing your own letter, and please note that sending a letter by mail or fax is much more effective than sending an email.

SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Prime Minister / Opposition Party Leader / Your MP:

The federal government's bank accountability and corporate responsibility enforcement system is the real scandal because for more than 140 years it has allowed Canada's big banks and corporations and executives to act dishonestly, unethically, secretively, non-representatively and wastefully.

Either laws and rules don't exist or are full of loopholes, or enforcement and penalties are too weak to prevent wrongdoing and penalize wrongdoers effectively.

Incredibly, the laws against illegal parking in Canada are enforced more strongly and effectively than key bank accountability and corporate responsibility laws and rules, and in some cases the penalties for parking illegally are higher than for corporate wrongdoing!

The problem is undeniable, as dozens of banking and corporate wrongdoing scandals have occurred over the past decade.

If the bank accountability and corporate responsibility system is not strengthened in key ways, corporations will continue to get away with abuse of customers, communities, the environment and shareholders.

I will not vote for you or any of your party's representatives if you do not promise in writing to resign if you do not do everything you can to make the following changes within one year after the next federal election (as you will see, the following changes are comprehensive and detailed, because incomplete half-measures will clearly not do enough to strengthen bank accountability and corporate responsibility in Canada and make corporations effectively accountable.

Here are the 15 detailed changes I want you to make to strengthen the corporate responsibilty and bank accountability system in Canada:

Key General Corporate Responsibility Changes

1. Require corporations (including banks and other financial institutions) to send a pamphlet to individual shareholders and customers inviting them to join watchdog groups for each corporate sector (some U.S. states have required utilities to do this -- See details on Democracy Watch's Citizen Association Campaign webpage);
2. Require corporate directors to consider stakeholder interests (represented by workers, customers, communities, social justice and environmental groups) in making decisions, and to account publicly for the extent to which they do (including reducing waste to the best world standard, and paying all the costs of recycling and cleaning up any waste or pollution that results from what the corporation produces, all to the best world standards);
3. Require corporations to disclose their records of compliance with environmental, criminal, competition, human rights, labour, health and safety laws, and set up an on-line, searchable database so that the public has easy access to the information;
4. Establish an effective system (including a fully independent, fully empowered watchdog agency) to protect, from any form of retaliation, "whistleblowers" who disclose corporate wrongdoing to the public or to the government;
5. Prohibit corporations that violate laws from receiving grants or contracts from any government for a specific period of time (e.g. 5-10 years), and;
6. Allow stakeholders to apply in court for the dissolution of a corporation that repeatedly violates laws.

1. Facilitate the creation of a Financial Consumer Organization (FCO) to help consumers, as the Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector recommended in its September 1998 Report and as supported by 64% of Canadians and a national coalition of 100 citizen groups with 3 million members.  This organization could be set up very easily and at a low cost if the federal government required banks and other financial institutions to enclose an FCO flyer in their mailings to customers, inviting people to join the watchdog group.  No bank takeover or merger should be allowed until the FCO is set up using this method (See details about this proposal on Democracy Watch's Citizen Association Campaign webpage);
2. Require banks to provide detailed information on loans, investments and services to customers, as required in the U.S.  We need to track whether banks are meeting the needs of individuals and businesses on a community-by-community level and, as in the U.S., require corrective action if banks are not meeting customer needs (including not allowing banks to merge or to takeover other financial institutions (such as TD Bank's takeover of Canada Trust) if they do not serve all customers well);
3. Prohibit any service charge or credit card interest rate increases until the banks prove (through an independent audit conducted by the Auditor General of Canada) that they aren't gouging us with excessive service and credit card charges, and lower fees and interest rates if audit reveals gouging;
4. Require banks to disclose the profit/loss record for any branch proposed to be closed, to allow for a full review of the reasons for the closure;
5. Empower either the federal Competition Bureau, or the federal Financial Consumer Agency of Canada to conduct an audit of how much money Canada's banks have made from gouging customers with excessive service and credit card charges, and closing branches and firing tellers, since 1992;
6. Empower either the federal Competition Bureau, or the federal Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, to conduct a nation-wide examination of the actual level of choice for consumers (ie. level of competition) in financial services in each community across Canada, and issue a public report;
7. Require the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada Commissioner to conduct "mystery shopper" audits of financial institution compliance with laws at least every 3 years, and to disclose the name of the financial institution and the terms of any settlement whenever the Commissioner finds that an institution has violated the law (currently, the Commissioner can only disclose the name of the institution if the Commissioner prosecutes the institution);
8. Give customers access to the money they deposit by cheque as soon as the cheque clears (Bill C-37 (which became federal law in April 2007) only reduces the cheque hold period from the usual 10 days to 4-7 days, even though 98 percent of cheques clear in one day), and;
9. Increase the maximum penalty for violating the Bank Act to $50 million (currently, the maximum penalty is $200,000, an essentially meaningless penalty for Canada's big banks which each make more than $15 billion in revenue each year).

I'm counting on you to prove you are a political leader by doing all you can to ensure that the changes set out above are made within the next two years, to finally put an end to dishonest, unethical, secretive, irresponsible and wasteful "business as usual" in Canada.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,
Your name and address

SEND YOUR LETTER BY MAIL calling for key federal corporate responsibility and bank accountability changes to:
Prime Minister and Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper, Interim Liberal Party Leader Bob Rae, the NDP and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, and your own MP
all at the following address (NO POSTAGE NEEDED):

House of Commons
Ottawa, Canada
K1A 0A6

OR send your letter by email to all the federal party leaders and key MPs and senators by copying the following email addresses:
pm@pm.gc.ca, harper.s@parl.gc.ca, bob.rae@parl.gc.ca, rae.b0@parl.gc.ca, ndpadmin@fed.ndp.ca, thomas.mulcair@parl.gc.ca, may.e@parl.gc.ca, may.e0@parl.gc.ca, leader@greenparty.ca, info@greenparty.ca, media@greenparty.ca, fina@parl.gc.ca, dwatch@web.net, indu@parl.gc.ca, banking_banques@sen.parl.gc.ca

Provincial governments have a similar list of 100 loopholes in their good government laws, and to find the addresses of your provincial politicians to send a letter calling on them to close the loopholes, click here.

TO SEND your letter by fax or email individually to federal politicians:
Prime Minister and Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper
Fax: 613-941-6900
Email: <pm@pm.gc.ca>
Email: <harper.s@parl.gc.ca>

Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae
Fax: 613-947-0310
Email: bob.rae@parl.gc.ca, rae.b0@parl.gc.ca

NDP  Party Leader Thomas Mulcair
Fax: 613-230-9950
Email: <thomas.mulcair@parl.gc.ca>
Email: <ndpadmin@fed.ndp.ca>

PLEASE ALSO SEND a copy of your letter by email to Democracy Watch at: <dwatch@web.net>