Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to speak to this motion, which is to amend the Lobbyists Registration Act.
Unfortunately, I deplore the fact that this bill does not go far enough in controlling the activities of lobbyists and reinforcing the openness of public activities. Yet the Liberal Party made many promises in its red book. I ask members to take a look at my copy of the red book. This is what is left of it because every time the Liberals introduce a bill, I tear a few pages out. Since they never keep their promises, my copy does not have many pages left.
What did the Liberals say on lobbying in the red book? They said: "The lobbying industry has expanded enormously in Canada during the nine years of Conservative government. The integrity of government is put into question when there is a perception that the public agenda is set by lobbyists exercising undue influence away from public view".
This is obviously the case with the DirecTV project which is presently being debated in this House in another context. There are still lobbies at work. However, we do not know much about them; they are not registered and we did not do everything we should have to ensure the desired transparency.
According to the red book, "the cosy relationship between lobbyists and the Conservative regime has contributed not only to public cynicism about politics but also to the sense of americanization of Canadian government". So they also insulted our neighbours. "Serious concerns have been raised in the minds of Canadians about some of their political representatives and some of the companies and individuals who lobby".
And it goes on like that. What are the Liberals doing now that they are in power? They said that they would make a law on lobbying. So, we are checking up on them. If we look at the famous committee report and at the bill now before us, we can see that the Liberals did not take any account of what they said when they were in the opposition, they dismissed that completely and, today, they introduce a bill that, except for a few minor points, could have been introduced by the Conservatives if they had been elected instead of the Liberals.
And yet, the hon. member for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, who sat on the committee, said some very interesting things. The government did not retain a single element of the report. The promises have evaporated. What did our friend across the way, the hon. member for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, tell us? "I do not agree with you when you say that all that is unimportant, that the question of knowing how much money has been spent on lobbying interests neither the concerned parties nor the public". So, he was in favour of the disclosure of revenues. But is there anything about that in the bill? No. The Liberal Party has forgotten about all that. But it keeps saying that the mushrooming of lobbyists is a cause for concern. The public has a right to know who does what and to whom. And must we add, at what cost? All that was included in the unanimous report of our committee. And it came from the mouth of the aforementioned member.
Another Liberal promise concerned the appointment of an ethics counsellor. They promised to appoint an independent counsellor in consultation with all parties in the House and they said that he or she would report to Parliament. What do we have in this regard in the bill before us? Again, absolutely nothing.
That is why we are proposing amendments so that things can be done exactly the same way as the member for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell was pointing out in the committee report when he was a member of the opposition. Section 10.1 of the act says that the Governor in Council may designate any person as the ethics counsellor for the purposes of this act. So we want to change that. We want to amend clause 5 of the bill, which amends sections 9 and 10 of the act. We want to replace section 10.1 by the following:
"10.1(1) There shall be an Ethics Counsellor who shall be appointed by commission under the Great Seal after approval of the appointment by resolution of the House of Commons.
(2) Subject to this section, the Ethics Counsellor holds office during good behaviour for a term of seven years, but may be removed by the Governor in Council at any time on address of the House of Commons.
(3) The Ethics Counsellor, on the expiration of a first or any subsequent term of office, is eligible to be re-appointed for a further term not exceeding seven years".
That is the way to fulfil a promise. That is the way to correct the very things that the previous government was criticized for. That is the way to give Canadians more confidence in the lobbying system, which is probably impossible in today's politics. Bureaucracy has become so cumbersome that it may be necessary to have lobbyists who are able to tell us on which door to knock, how to knock, how to open the door, how to dress, how to talk, etc. That is basically what lobbyists do when they lobby on our behalf so that we can obtain more easily what we ask for as a legitimate right and not as a privilege. People must not think that we are against lobbying. We know it is necessary, but we want the rules of the game to be clear. We want the rules of the game to be transparent. We want the credibility and the ethics of this person to be solid so that people put their trust completely or renews their trust in the men and women in politics.
The government had the fine idea of fulfilling its promise and having someone appointed by the House, who would report to Parliament. Unfortunately, the Liberals never carried it out. Mitchell Sharp was initially appointed to advise the Prime Minister. They ended up hiring a personal adviser. Everytime we asked the Prime Minister or a member of the government about the famous role of the counsellor, we were told that he was
consulted after the fact, and it was not entirely clear that the advice was actually given to the Prime Minister. Finally, we have no idea whether this helps the Prime Minister, except that it costs us a fairly substantial salary, which raises questions about the role of this counsellor, when we give him a particular role. It has not, however, raised the credibility of someone who was the Prime Minister's counsellor.
This is why the Bloc Quebecois is proposing this amendment. Despite the remarks of my colleague, which I fully support, we have the impression of playing opposition here. People must not think we are playing games. We are trying to show the government that points in their legislation are unacceptable and could be taken further. We really have to amend the policy somewhat in order to improve things. We are not being paid to do nothing. We are being paid to express the viewpoint of people outside government, who do not have the same focus on things.
The government could easily agree to change certain amendments and even carry out some of its promises. Can you believe it, we in opposition want to help the government? We tell the government to be as good as it promised, to keep its promises. What more could the public want from a government and an opposition that work for the collective good in order to protect the interests of the people?