Mr. Speaker, I appreciate you restoring a little bit of order and some of this touches a bit of a nerve with members opposite.
As I was saying, people were absolutely fed up and disgusted by the culture of entitlement that developed in Ottawa under the former Liberal government. Bill C-2, the federal accountability act, delivers on that commitment that we made in the last election to clean up corruption and demonstrates that our government is taking concrete action to restore the trust of Canadians.
Bill C-2 is about fixing the system for Canadians. The act will move us from a culture of entitlement to a culture of accountability. It will make everyone in the government, from the Prime Minister on down, answerable to Canadians. It will strengthen and streamline how government works by making government more effective and accountable, and will let Canadians know that their hard earned tax dollars are being spent properly and wisely.
Concrete changes for Canadians in the new federal accountability act include: banning corporate, union and large personal political donations; giving Canadians confidence that lobbying is done ethically by bringing in a five year lobbying ban on former ministers, their aides and senior public servants; providing real protection for whistleblowers; and ensuring that Canadians know how their money is spent by enhancing the power of the Auditor General to follow the money.
Bill C-2 will bring in some of the toughest anti-corruption legislation in the country while empowering officers of Parliament to ensure that nothing like the sponsorship scandal can happen again.
I would like touch on some of the new reforms introduced in Bill C-2. One of the most important and well publicized aspects of Bill C-2 is that it eliminates the undue influence of big money donors by banning large personal or corporate donations to political parties. With the new federal accountability act, our government will wrest power out of the hands of powerful interests and give it back to the people.
The federal accountability act will limit individual donations to $1,000 per year; ban contributions by corporations, unions and organizations; prohibit cash donations of more than $20; and it will also ban secret donations and gifts to political candidates. That last point is particularly important. At present, even though campaign donations are regulated, riding associations can still give large amounts of money to candidates through trust funds.
Among other changes Bill C-2 will prohibit candidates from accepting gifts that might be seen to influence them in the performance of their elected duties. It will also prohibit MPs from using money for political purposes and require candidates to report any gifts they receive worth more than $500. These are positive changes that will bring greater transparency and fairness to political financing.
I would also like to talk about the provisions of Bill C-2 that strengthen the ability of the Auditor General to review annual federal grants, contributions and contracts. It is absolutely critical that Parliament is able to hold the government to account for the use of taxpayer dollars. That means Parliament needs objective facts and information about how well the government raises and spends public funds. This is the critical role the Auditor General plays.
The new federal accountability act will give the Auditor General the authority to follow the money by inquiring into the use of funds that individuals, institutions and companies receive under a fundraising agreement with any federal department, agency or crown corporation. It will also require the government to include provisions in all funding agreements requiring recipients to keep records and cooperate with the Auditor General on request.
Because of Bill C-2, every government department will be required to review at least once every five years the relevance and effectiveness of its grants and contributions programs. These changes will reassure Canadians that their tax dollars are being used wisely and will also ensure that the Auditor General is able to get all the facts necessary to do her job.
One of the areas where we know work needs to be done to improve accountability concerns the awarding of government contracts. Unlike the former government, our government will ensure that the government procurement process is free of political interference and that the bidding process for government contracts is open and transparent.
To address this, the federal accountability act will create the position of a procurement auditor to review procurement practices across government, review complaints regarding contract administration, and submit an annual report to be tabled in Parliament. As these changes indicate, delivering accountability means addressing the broader relationship between government, and those persons and companies that do business with the government.
That is reflected in the provision of the bill that concerns government contracts, but it is also reflected in components of Bill C-2 which will toughen rules for lobbying including: establishing a new commissioner of lobbying as an independent agent of Parliament; prohibiting ministers, ministerial staffers and senior public servants from registering and lobbying the Government of Canada for five years after leaving office; and doubling the criminal monetary penalties for lobbyists who fail to comply with the requirements of the lobbying act.
With these new changes the commissioner of lobbying will ensure that lobbying is done in a fair and transparent manner. These changes are dramatic and are part of a package which will produce real results for Canadians.
While I do not have enough time to go into detail on some of the components of the proposed bill, I do want to make note of some of them because they are very important. There are components such as: strengthening auditing and accountability within departments, creating a director of public prosecutions to conduct prosecutions for offences under federal jurisdiction, and providing real protection for whistleblowers to help create an environment in which employees can report wrongdoing in the federal government without fear of reprisal.
I am proud to be part of a government that has made accountability a priority. I know the residents of Palliser have been waiting for these changes and will welcome our government's actions to bring transparency and accountability to government.
