Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise and address this item of Private Members' Business this afternoon dealing with the creation of a code of conduct.
The development of a code of conduct for members of parliament is a proposal that has been brought before the House many times over the past 20 years or so. In fact, my hon. colleague introduced this bill in the last session of parliament, which was Bill C-488.
A code of conduct is a matter in which all parliamentarians have an interest and which can only be implemented with the agreement of all members of parliament and in the other place. Obviously, every parliamentarian has a responsibility to act with honesty and integrity and to maintain the confidence that Canadians have placed in all of us.
The Prime Minister, himself, in this House has said:
—trust in the institutions of government is not a partisan issue, but something all of us elected to public office have an obligation to restore.
Clearly as parliamentarians we have individual responsibility for ethical conduct. In addition, together we have a collective responsibility to ensure that conduct. In part, this is because the legislature is a separate and distinct branch of government from the executive. Our approach to conduct can only properly be developed by us for ourselves.
My hon. colleague's initiative for a code of conduct raises issues regarding our individual and collective responsibilities here in parliament.
To put this in perspective, I will comment on what is already in place and the work that has gone on before us as it relates to the integrity and honesty of our political institutions.
First, as parliamentarians we are already governed by the laws of the country, as well as the laws of parliament.
Let me begin with the standing orders of the House of Commons, which govern us here, and the rich history of precedents and Speakers' rulings, which establish parameters for the carriage of our duties as parliamentarians. The same applies in the other place with their own rules.
For example, Standing Order 21 provides that members cannot vote on a question in which they may have a pecuniary interest. Standing Order 23 defines as a high crime and misdemeanour the act of members of the House accepting money to promote a matter which is being considered by parliament.
The criminal code specifically prohibits members of parliament from engaging in bribery and corrupt acts. However, the courts have recognized some ambiguity in the definition of the term officer of parliament, and it has been suggested that the term should be clarified by parliament.
The Parliament of Canada Act addresses conflict of interest for senators and establishes fines for contravention. There are also provisions relating to contracting governing members of the House, though it has also been proposed that these rules, long standing, now be updated.
The Elections Act also sets out guidelines for conduct during elections, for example, with respect to campaign financing. An amendment to the Elections Act currently before the House increases the level of transparency and accountability in election financing, which is consistent with the government's commitment to restore integrity to our political institutions. The penalty in some cases under the Elections Act is loss of the member's seat.
Aside from these basic building blocks for ethical behaviour, from the beginning the government has recognized the importance of restoring the appearances of honesty and integrity to the country's political institutions. We set this out as a top priority in our Liberal Party's red book during the 1993 election.
Since then, the list of initiatives we have implemented is quite long, but I am sure my colleagues will recognize the following. The government introduced amendments to the Lobbyists Registration Act to increase the transparency of lobbying activities. This included stiffer penalties for lobbyists, and has increased the transparency of their activities.
As part of this initiative, the government also appointed an ethics counsellor who has responsibilities in two areas: First, he advises ministers and government officials on their conduct in the course of carrying out their official duties; and second, the ethics counsellor can investigate complaints about lobbyists' activities pursuant to their code of conduct.
The Prime Minister tabled a new conflict of interest code for public office holders in the House in June 1994. This code is a concrete measure that shows that the government recognizes that restoring the public trust involves strengthening the system from both the public office and lobbying sides.
The code sets out key principles that apply to all public office holders: ministers, secretaries of state, parliamentary secretaries, ministerial staff and full time governor in council appointees. The code is enforced by the Prime Minister.
As we can see, the government takes very seriously its responsibilities to maintain integrity in government.
I will now address parliament's efforts in developing a code of conduct. We have been studying the issue of parliamentary ethics since the early 1970s with various government green papers, standing committee reports and a plethora of bills on the subject, although all have died on the order paper.
In fact, some of the most in depth study was conducted quite recently. Here I am thinking of the work of the special joint committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on a code of conduct, which was established by the government in 1995.
This committee, which was chaired by the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands, heard from many witnesses, including the federal ethics counsellor, the privacy commissioner, academics in the field of political science, respected members of the public and several provincial commissioners of ethics.
The final report of that committee constructed a code that drew on many of the common elements raised during testimony. Some examples include: that a list of principles should be included in the code: that it was important to have a commissioner or body appointed to provide advice, take disclosures and enforce the code, as does the existing ethics commissioner for ministers and parliamentary secretaries; that it needed to deal with disclosure of assets and interests; the importance of clarifying the area of government contracting; and recognizing the distinction between the legislature and the executive by recommending that a permanent committee be established to administer the code.
From reading Bill C-226, I can see that my hon. colleague opposite has drawn on much of the previous work that has been done by parliamentarians.
However, as with the many initiatives on a code of conduct for parliamentarians, the special committee's report was not adopted because members of parliament themselves could not agree to adopt the report.
Some members of parliament have indicated that in their view a formal code could create a rigid and onerous system of rules which would not be appropriate in a parliament.
So the challenge in the House and in the other place has been in deciding the best balance to ensure that there exists and appears to be ethical behaviour on the part of parliamentarians.
As I have mentioned, we already have a range of measures in place to deal with this area.
I am not personally aware of a great interest among hon. members in making the development of a formal code a priority at this time. I am also not aware of a special need to do it at this time.
The member's efforts, the member who moved the bill, are most creditable and laudable. He continues a tradition that has been around this place for 20 or so years now. I certainly want to recognize his efforts and contribution to this and to our efforts collectively in this place to maintain high standards and the appearance of high standards of ethical conduct in the conduct of our work and responsibilities as parliamentarians.