Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in support of Bill C-339, an act to provide for funding for interveners in hearings before certain boards and agencies.
I think we all know that politicians at all levels of government are suffering from a serious lack of credibility right now. People feel politicians are not listening to what they have to say and are refusing to tackle the very real concerns that touch their daily lives. They have the perception that government is selling out to the interests of big business. It may well be they are right, but for the wrong reasons. It may well be that the voices of the people are not being heard in many instances because they just do not have the funds to travel across the country to make their views known. They just do not have the money to hire lawyers, experts, researchers, and writers to present their point of view. The interests of the little guy are in fact getting lost in the shuffle.
Over and over people have been saying that they want to have an input into government decision-making. We, as a government, have told them that we agree. However, as the Minister of the Environment said during the debate on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, "It is one thing to say that people have a say; it is another thing to give them the tools to exercise their right."
Bill C-339 addresses this problem in a concrete way. By ensuring funding, it provides the tools necessary for the average citizen, regardless of his or her financial assets, to be heard in the decision-making process. Intervener funding will assure the public that those with a valid interest will be heard at future hearings and that the public will have input into government decisions.
It is important to note that in drafting this excellent piece of legislation the member for Oxford was able to draw upon legislation that already exists in the province of Ontario. He was not reinventing the wheel. The Ontario government proclaimed the Intervenor Funding Project Act in 1989 as a three-year pilot project. In 1992 the province of Ontario conducted a review of the Intervenor Funding Project Act. This review, entitled "Access and Impact: An Evaluation of the Intervenor Funding Project Act, 1988", showed broad support for the objectives of the legislation. The project was extended to the spring of 1996. I would like to quote from this report, as I think the experience in the province of Ontario is very close to that in the entire country:
The manner in which many administrative decisions were made in the 1960s and 1970s excluded members of the public, even though many decisions were required to be made in the public interest.
Too often, agencies and tribunals were only presented with the view of the regulated industry or the applicant for an approval. As agencies are now faced with a bewildering array of social, economic, and moral questions, a critical view is that excluding diverse interests is no longer appropriate.
Increasing public access to administrative decision-making is important for several reasons, first of which is fairness. Decisions regulating the conduct of businesses affect small or large segments of the public. Sometimes individuals are financially affected, each to a small degree, as with telephone or utility rates. Sometimes an individual's health and well-being are affected, as with environmental and food and drug regulation. In principle, if people are affected by decisions they should have the right to be heard.
Second is quality of decisions. Where regulatory decisions affect the public and are required to be made in the public interest the quality of those decisions is improved when members of the affected public participate. They apprise the tribunal of facts that might not otherwise come to its attention. They assert different perspectives and opinions about the consequences of the decision to counter the assertions of the regulated industry. In this way the tribunal gains a better understanding of the range of dimensions of the public interest it is charged with serving. Better decisions result.
Third is accountability. When members of the public participate in administrative decisions they gain an understanding of the balance that is struck between competing interests in reaching a decision. This process improves the accountability of the decision-maker and legitimizes the decisions for those who participate.
I believe these statements fairly sum up the reasons in favour of the bill.
During earlier debate there was some question of the fairness of requiring a private company to finance the group that may kill its application as well as some question of what would happen if the company were financially unable to fund the interveners. Again I would like to quote from the access and impact study:
We believe that more effective monitoring of the costs and benefits of the process will be achieved if those who are the focus of these decisions, the proponents, are made to bear the costs. It is they who are the centrepiece of the regulated activity. A critical aspect of that role requires effective participation by other interests while ensuring that participation is responsible.
I think it is obvious that a proponent who has to pay for this intervention will suddenly realize that consultation and co-operation and compromise are in their best interest, thus reducing or even eliminating the need for the intervention and confrontation.
I urge all members to support this legislation.