Evidence of meeting #31 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was office.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:20 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
—and so I'm not looking for a closer tie with Treasury Board or the government.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Okay, very good.
Ms. Benoit, you just indicated that you're now fully staffed. Do you feel that the budget that you have is providing you with the adequate resources to create your legislated mandate?
12:20 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Yes. At the moment, it looks like we're going to be fine.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Okay.
So concerns raised, like the ones by Mr. Angus for example, that it may seem that it takes you too long to report back, this doesn't have anything to do with staffing at the moment. This has more to do with the actual mechanics of completing an investigation.
12:20 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
That's right. Sometimes witnesses are simply not available for a couple of months. Sometimes it takes time to get documents. Sometimes there are a lot of witnesses. All those things happened in the most recent case.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Okay.
In a case by Mr. Angus, I want to go back to it just briefly. As I said, I often look at these things and see the partisan political purposes behind it. But the reality is that I didn't think there were a lot of new facts in the report you presented. I believe Mr. Angus, if he wasn't part of it, certainly a number of his colleagues were, when Mr. Jaffer came before committee. I didn't think there were any new facts per se, but I thought that the findings pertaining to the facts of the case were what was valuable to government, and in fact, something that, as I said, we've appreciated.
Would you agree that there weren't a lot of new facts in the report? It was more looking at the facts of the case with respect of the act.
12:25 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Yes. We had to spend quite a bit of time in this case comparing the situation of Mr. Jaffer with other situations. That took us some time.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Okay, I appreciate that.
How many investigations did you conduct in the past year? Do you have that number?
12:25 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Well, I have the number. We're conducting at the moment about seven, I believe.
12:25 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Yes. We have 14 files open.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Okay.
What is the source, most often, of the complaints that you're receiving? Are they most often from political parties? Are they from Canadians at large? Are they from media? What is the source of the complaints that your office reviews?
12:25 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
As I mentioned, about half of the investigations were on request, and only a member of Parliament or a senator can request. So those are the seven. Then, the other half are largely as a result of either media reports or private citizens.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
So your office will self-undertake an investigation? For example, if you see something in the media that you're concerned about, you may well undertake an investigation into that, whether an MP or a senator requests it or not?
12:25 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Yes.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Dawson, for coming today, and thank you for the work and the reports that you do.
You give us some good reading, educational reading, and another report tabled in Parliament today, so thank you for that.
Obviously the issue of Christian Paradis is here at hand, and it totally lacks the judgment ministers should have. This minister has attended exclusive fundraisers with clients, with public works at the time he was public works minister. He's the first cabinet minister in Canadian history to be found in violation of the Conflict of Interest Act, and now we learn that he went moose hunting and stayed at an exclusive lodge with the former owner of the Quebec Nordiques at the same time the federal government was lobbied to finance a new NHL arena in Quebec City.
All of this is very troubling.
Getting back to the report that you tabled on Mr. Paradis less than a week ago, you put substantial resources into a two-year investigation—a 34-page report—and the Minister was found to have contravened the Conflict of Interest Act.
Then the Prime Minister comes out and just shrugs it off, says thank you very much, and does absolutely nothing.
Madam Commissioner, do you feel that your work is in vain, when there are really no consequences, when you put all this effort in to a report, and then nothing comes of it?
12:25 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
No. I think I thoroughly discussed a certain area of the act, which I hope all public office holders will understand better. I don't think it's time lost at all. I made additional observations in that report as well, relating to other aspects that I noticed.
I do try, as I said in my remarks, to take opportunities whenever I can to elucidate the rules.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
You're very familiar with the Conflict of Interest Act. Is there anywhere in the Conflict of Interest Act where it refers to substantial conflict?
12:25 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Sorry, what was that?
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
Is there anywhere the Conflict of Interest Act refers to substantial conflict?
12:25 p.m.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
No.
March 27th, 2012 / 12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Andrews Liberal Avalon, NL
No, but the Prime Minister seems to say that there was no substantial harm done, and that is defined nowhere in the act.
Do you think that there should be mandatory minimum penalties in the Conflict of Interest Act, and if so, that government ministers can't ignore them?
