New Parliament of Canada Ethics Rules

1
New Parliament of Canada Ethics Rules

• Provinces first to act
• conflict of interest legislation plus independent
  ethics commissioner
• Ontario 1988
• B.C. AB 1991
• by 2003, all provinces and territories covered

• Provincial regimes
• generally successful
• exceptions
• Ralph Klein Multi-Corp affair (EC didnt ask
  right questions)
• Glen Clark in British Columbia (Clark failed to
  utilize EC)

2
Parliamentary regime

• Action after scandal
• Pearson letter 1964
• MacEachen report 1973 - recommended c.o.i.
  legislation
• Trudeau issued cabinet guidelines instead
• ARDG to administer
• 1979 Clark makes guidelines public

• 1983 Starr-Sharp rep
• legislation
• office of pub sect eth
• Mulroney new guidelines instead
• Stevens affair 1986
• 1987 legislation indep ethics comm
• re-introduced 1988, died again

3
Red book and after

• Promise to govern with integrity
• ARDG becomes ethics counsellor
• not independent
• Auberge Grand-mere
• 1999-2002
• 2003 ethics leg introduced, Senate killed

• Martin re-introduced Feb 2004
• Bill C-4 received Royal Assent March 31
• indep Hse of Comm Ethics Commissioner
• indep Senate Ethics Officer
• H of C code approved good code, big improvement
  on previous drafts
• Senate code yet to come

4
Avoidable ethics scandals

• 13 prominent episodes of ethics lapses 7 might
  have been prevented with C-4
• Dupuy 1994
• Collonette, 1996
• Auberge Grand-Mere, 1999 - 2003

• Sponsorship scandal, 2000-2004
• Boudria, 2002
• Eggleton, 2002
• MacAulay, 2002
• In addition, 4 cabinet ministers accepted
  hospitality from Irvings
• C-4 not applicable Pearson airport, Airbus,
  GST, Corbeil, APEC, HRDC

5
Bill C-4

• H of C Ethics Commissioner Senate Ethics
  Officer
• nominated by cabinet after cons with party
  leaders
• reviewed by relevant chamber
• appd by GG for 7 yrs (Sen) or 5 yrs (Hse)
• Bernard Shapiro 1st Commissioner

• Commissioner also
• issues annual reports
• administers PMs code for public office holders
  (good code for cabinet, parl secs, min
  assistants, G-in-C appointees other than
  judges, Parl staff, LGs, ambs, RCMP 3,000
  covered)
• PMs code changes tabled in Parliament
• (other public servants covered by new fed code
  and Integrity Officer)

6
Inquiries by Ethics Commissioner

• Any MP or Senator can request an investigation
  for alleged breach
• Commissioner can establish an inquiry, summon
  witnesses order production of evidence

• Inquiry reports to be made public
• educative role emphasized by legislation
• cant meet with all MPs public office holders,
  but can hire staff
• likely to meet with cabinet ministers

7
Factors for Success of New Federal Ethics Regime

• New Ethics Commissioner does excellent educative
  work, and conducts fair inquiries
• Quality of staff for new Ethics Commissioner
• Competent Ethics Officer for Senate appointed
• Senate code of conduct as comprehensive as that
  for House of Commons