Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about Bill C-43, an act to amend the Lobbyists Registration Act and to make related amendments to other Acts, which the Minister of Industry tabled on June 16, 1994. The law preceding it took effect in 1989. First of all we must keep in mind that the population has a poor opinion of the government's decision making process.
People have lost a lot of their trust in the government. We must, therefore, restore the public's trust and convince the population that the government's decisions are fair and are made on the basis of merit.
Lobbyists, influence peddlars, as some like to call them, have always held a great, and at times even disproportionate, amount of power. In March 1994, there were 944 of them on Parliament Hill. They sometimes work in the shadows and in secrecy; sometimes they are at the centre of influence-peddling; they do not necessarily work in the public interest. The work carried out on Parliament Hill must be made transparent so that the population will understand, for example, what brings the government to make a deal with a person or an organization or what motivated a regulation, a bill, etc.
This bill, although a step in the right direction, is very disappointing for many reasons. Unfortunately, the Liberals rejected all of the amendments that the Bloc Quebecois proposed in committee and in the House to improve it.
The population of today's democratic societies is demanding more and more transparency in the legislative process and in the government's decisions.
Under Bill C-43, lobbyists will have to disclose the specific subject-matter of their activities, the name of the government department or institution they will be lobbying, the communication techniques that will be used and, in certain cases, information about the true beneficiary of the lobbying. They will also have to disclose the names of the legislative proposal, bill, resolution, policy, regulation, subsidy, contribution or any other financial advantage that they are targeting.
The second important element of this bill is that consultant lobbyists, also known as professional lobbyists, will be required to report this information for each new undertaking, each mandate.
Third, the bill allows lobbyists to file their returns electronically, sets the limitation period for enforcement proceedings at two years and provides for a parliamentary review of the Act in four years.
Finally, the bill provides for the designation of an ethics counsellor who establishes a lobbyists' code of conduct and investigates alleged breaches of it.
Over the years, parliamentarians have seen their role as representatives of the people diminish. Lobbyists, however, have become a powerful force. They manage to obtain direct access to government decision-makers. Today, the main decision-makers in government are senior officials, deputy ministers, ministers and, of course, the Prime Minister.
The United States passed the first law on lobbying several years ago. It was necessary to curb some of the excesses of this profession. The emphasis was on control and disclosure, secret lobbying and pressure behind the scenes. Before immigrating to Canada 21 years ago, I had read and heard about the powerful lobbies acting on behalf of large U.S. corporations.
The Parliament of Canada has reviewed the activities of this profession several times, more specifically in the Cooper Committee's report in 1986 and the Holtmann Committee's report in 1993.
Today, we have paid lobbyists, professional lobbyists and organizations.
The bill provides for only two types: consultant lobbyists and in-house lobbyists who work for an organization or a corporation. Consultant lobbyists are independent and contract their services to clients. They will have to file detailed returns on the nature of their clients' interests.
The federal government spends $160 billion annually. That is a lot of money. We must ensure that public funds are not used to promote the interests of certain individuals who have a close relationship with, or privileged access to, the government, or to promote the interests of individuals or companies that contributed to the campaign fund of the party in power.
The Sub-committee of the Standing Committee on Industry examined this bill and heard many witnesses. I very carefully read the majority and minority reports, and I fully agree with the dissenting report submitted by the Bloc Quebecois.
The business of government must be as transparent as possible, so that public policy reflects the common good of the people and not the interests of powerful lobbies.
Canadians and Quebecers agree on the need to put an end to the confidence crisis in the population regarding their institu-
tions. However, after one and a half years in power the Liberal government has not been able to increase its transparency.
In September 1994 the media showed the lobbyists multiplying their meetings with officials before the tabling of Bill C-43 in a last attempt to curb its influence on their activities. Some lobbyists have even threatened to pursue the government if the new law forced them to disclose their political alliances.
In the case of intense lobbying regarding Bill C-43 the lack of transparency had prevented the population and parliamentarians to know the scope and the nature of lobbyists' actions. It was a strange situation; the lobbyists succeeded in influencing the very bill which was to limit their own influence. Considering these facts, the need for transparency has never been more evident.
This having been said, I acknowledge that this bill contains a number of improvements to the system regulating lobbyists. However, we have to recognize that the commitments in the Liberal Party's red book are considerably watered down in this legislative text, which could not prevent troubling events such as those surrounding the privatization of the Pearson International Airport in Toronto.
The government finally agreed yesterday with considerable reticence to having a Senate committee investigate this dubious transaction. However, I doubt that this committee controlled by the Conservatives and the Liberals will clarify the situation entirely, since both parties were involved in this matter. It is interesting to note that Fred Doucet, a former executive assistant to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, received $2 million as a lobbyist in this transaction.
On May 16, 1994, I had occasion, during a debate on Bill C-22, to denounce the privatization of terminals 1 and 2 of this very profitable airport by the Conservative government, just two weeks prior to the 1993 federal election. It was a scandalous contract with all the appearances of the political patronage and manipulation that characterizes the end of a government's term of office. Even Mr. Nixon, whom Mr. Chrétien appointed to investigate the matter, said that the public was entitled to know all the details of the agreement.
Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to continue my speech.