Mr. Speaker, today we are speaking to Bill C-34 and the roles of the ethics commissioner and the Senate ethics officer. I am pleased to have the opportunity to add my concerns to those already outlined by my colleagues. By now members will have heard most of these points more than once and that fact should be an indicator that these are valid concerns held by a diverse group of people.
First of all, I must say that I am in favour of setting and maintaining a high ethical standard for government and parliamentarians. I am also in favour of ensuring that standard is met and enforced by an independent and objective body. Unfortunately, Bill C-34 does not fulfill those requirements.
What the Liberals have suggested is the creation of an ethics overseer who really would not be independent at all. As proposed, the ethics commissioner would be appointed by the Prime Minister and that choice would be ratified by a vote in the House of Commons by a majority government. It is true that the Prime Minister would have to consult the leaders of the other political parties, but the scope of that consultation has not been defined. Essentially the Prime Minister could ask the other party leaders what they thought about whom he had chosen and then simply ignore any feedback he received.
The ethics commissioner would be responsible for investigating misconduct of MPs from all parties. It is therefore absolutely mandatory that the commissioner be totally neutral from a political perspective. The appointment process outlined in the bill sets the foundation for just the opposite circumstance, an individual that could be biased in favour of the ruling party that chose him or her for the job. All parties should approve a truly independent commissioner; otherwise the government majority will prevail in hand-picking its so-called independent watchdog and skewing any possible perception of fairness.
I am also concerned about the appearance and the presence of accountability within the system. The Canadian public has been exposed to scandal after scandal throughout the reign of the Liberal government: wasted money, a lack of transparency, conflict of interest and preferential treatment. Bill C-34 is an exercise in Liberal damage control. Unfortunately, there is no reason for Canadians to believe that the government that perpetuated these fiascos is capable of appointing an effective ethics commissioner to monitor its own behaviour.
Some time ago I sent a survey to every household in my riding. One of the questions asked constituents to rank several issues in terms of their importance. The number one issue was not health care; it was not taxes; it was not defence. The overwhelming majority of respondents identified government accountability as the most important issue facing our country today. That is where I am coming from in making my points.
To conclude, I would like to share a quote from Duff Conacher, coordinator of Democracy Watch and chairperson of the Government Ethics Coalition, which I believe sums up my concerns about Bill C-34:
Prime Minister Chrétien has proposed a new 'Swiss-cheese' ethics enforcement system filled with holes that will prove to be fatal flaws, especially given that the new ethics watchdogs will conflict with each other, be appointed by Cabinet, operate in secret, and be unaccountable to the public or the courts.