Mr. Speaker, it is rather ironic that on the first day the House resumes sitting in this fall session, the first item on the agenda is one of the most prominent examples of Liberal arrogance and failure of leadership.
We would have expected to have an ethics bill brought in by this government many years ago. It absolutely has refused to even consider anything along that line. The bill that it has brought in is kind of last minute, is a little late in being tabled and is far from being a perfect piece of legislation, which an ethics bill absolutely must be.
It is rather sad that in the twilight of the Prime Minister's 10 year reign, his quest for a legacy involves an attempt to weave an illusion that his government conformed to any ethical standards at all or did anything meaningful to address the longstanding concerns about parliamentary and electoral reform. I think government members would be hard pressed to find an example of any meaningful change to the system that they have brought about.
History will show the true nature of the Liberal government's arrogance. In the early 1990s the Liberals campaigned on a theme of ethics in politics. Canadians will recall that this government promised in the 1993 red book to introduce change to revive parliamentary democracy by improving ethics, elections and introducing parliamentary reform. After 10 years one must doubt whether the Liberals had any sincere intention at all of fulfilling these promises.
At the beginning of his reign, the Prime Minister was quick to ask ethical questions about the last Progressive Conservative government despite any evidence of wrongdoing or ill intent. The Liberals continued to push these issues and spent millions of taxpayer dollars for their own political agenda long after the cases had been closed, apologies given and million dollar compensations awarded to the victims of Liberal spite.
Meanwhile, the government faced a long series of scandals of its own that forced not the resignation of one member of the crown but four ministers of the crown.
Questions remain over the conduct of the Prime Minister himself in what is now the notorious Shawinigate affair. Questions remain regarding the blind trust of the former minister of finance. It was blind trust that allowed several sneak peeks along the way, presumably only when tens of millions of dollars were on the line in some type of a deal. Canadians are denied the details of these secret meetings.
On these issues, all that Canada and Parliament has is the word of the Prime Minister and his ethics counsellor. This situation is far from being called a standard of ethical conduct of governance in Canada. For 10 years the Liberals have faced an internal power struggle as rival factions, unsatisfied with the democratic election of Liberal leadership, have vied for power and have plotted the downfall of the sitting Prime Minister. In the last year these internal power struggles have erupted into the public eye under the pseudonym of the Liberal leadership race.
It can hardly be called a race. It is more like a one-man marathon with a multi-billion dollar antique steam turtle trotting toward a golden tower of power.
The Liberal leadership race has dragged on so long that it no longer garners much of anyone's interest. The heir apparent has taken to saying absolutely nothing at all on ethics, or policy, or electoral reform or anything, and why should he? His crown is nearly in hand and he stands only to damage himself by speaking for anything at all besides his own interests with a promise to reveal his policy plans from on high once he has ascended to the throne. Mr. Speaker, Canadians yawn.
Contrast the Liberal leadership race to that of the Progressive Conservatives where rival candidates hotly debated radically different visions for the future of Canada, put forth a plethora of new policy ideas and exhibited a degree of youthful enthusiasm for governance not seen in the country for years.
The Liberal government has failed to earn the public's trust to set ethical standards. It has also failed to hold to the principles of effective parliamentary democracy. Yet this a government that in spite of its long list of scandals and circumvention of democracy proposes to introduce ethical reform to Canada's Parliament. What a tragedy.
The Progressive Conservative Party supports the principles of improved ethics, parliamentary improvement and electoral reform, and for 10 years the Progressive Conservatives have been by far the most effective party at holding the government to account in this Parliament. Our pressure has finally seen some results. Efforts to recognize the need of an appointed independent ethics commissioner reporting to Parliament are essential for effective democracy in Canada.
The proposed ethics commissioner would have powers to investigate ethical issues, analyze facts and draw conclusions. That information would be released to the Prime Minister, to the person making the complaint, and to the minister under investigation.
We note, however, that the bill discusses only the means to enforce ethics, rather than the code of ethics itself. If this bill were to pass tomorrow, what ethical code would the ethics commissioner enforce?
We also note that although the bill calls for information to be released simultaneously to the public, the commissioner would also provide the Prime Minister with confidential information that would not be included in the public report. In other words, the government is reserving the right to edit the public record and hold back any damaging or unethical findings. The Progressive Conservative Party urges the government to ensure that all relevant findings are made available, both to Parliament and to the public at large.
It is also a concern of ours that the salary of the ethics commissioner would be set by cabinet. This could have the negative effect of making the commissioner beholden to cabinet for raises in pay. How can someone conduct an unbiased investigation into someone who holds the purse string? It would be pretty difficult.
We would prefer that the salary of the ethics commissioner be set as it is for the privacy and information commissioners, that is, that the ethics commissioner should be paid a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Federal Court, other than the chief justice or the associate chief justice of that court, and be entitled to reasonable travel and living expenses incurred in the performance of his or her duties under this or any other act of Parliament.
Our party also has concerns that the reports tabled in Parliament would not contain more than a simple statistical list of investigations conducted, discarded or completed. We trust that it would be considerably more thorough and detailed.
Finally, the Progressive Conservative Party is pleased that after 10 years of questionable ethical conduct, a lame duck Prime Minister's last gift to Canada is to impose a stricter code of conduct on his successor than he had upon himself. The timing begs the question, however, whether the bill is for the good of the country or is one last poke in the eye at the Prime Minister's old rival, the member for LaSalle--Émard and the Liberal heir apparent.
It is the hope of the PC Party that it will not be lame duck legislation and that it will be a first step in leading to improved ethical standards and parliamentary reform in Canada.
Canada desperately needs the effective ethical leadership that it has lacked for so long. Until an election is called, we can only trust that the Prime Minister's successor chooses to improve the ethical standard rather than to delay it for another 10 years or, worse, continue on as if nothing has changed.
There is a saying, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”. We can only hope that Canada's newest Prime Minister does not fall back on his old habits, to the detriment of the country; and when he does, rest assured the Progressive Conservative Party will continue to hold the government to account and work toward genuine, ethical standards and parliamentary reform in Canada.