Procedure and House Affairs committee  In Quebec, they have matching funding for independent candidates. At the candidate level, there isn't a threshold in Quebec. If you run as an independent, you'll get the matching funding for what you raise for your campaign. That also levels the playing field much more for indepe

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, Quebec eliminated that because of the $100 donation limit. Currently the tax deductions favour those who can give more as well, and there's a huge taxpayer subsidy that exists. The per-vote funding subsidy from taxpayers meant that you had to vote for a party before you get

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You could go to a system that is entirely public financing, but I believe that parties should be encouraged to reach out to voters and hear their concerns in order to prosper financially. That's why I believe the public financing in Quebec is too high. It provides the parties wit

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I favour Democracy Watch's position and the coalition's position, which is that the matching funding that Quebec has is a better way to go. The matching funding should be higher in Quebec and the per-vote funding lower. Per-vote funding is fine as long as it's just a base amount

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Chair. To members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to present to you today on Bill C-50. As mentioned, I am co-founder and coordinator of Democracy Watch and chair of the Money in Politics Coalition, which is made up of 50 organizations with

Government Operations committee  Yes. I think the point of the flaw is.... I don't think a minister should be accountable for everything that people in the bureaucracy do, because sometimes they're not informed. However, if they are informed about it, they should be held accountable. The real crux of the matter

Government Operations committee  The commissioner is an officer of Parliament, who is tied too much to the executive branch because the executive branch, the cabinet alone, selects the person, and that's the conflict of interest that others have talked about through the whole system. Just to talk about one othe

Government Operations committee  I think it's essential because—

Government Operations committee  No, all whistle-blowing. The OSC has set the precedent in Canada. I think it's essential because many people, even if the retaliation doesn't happen, are in some ways uncomfortable staying in their position. They want to make a transition. The reward should be, within government,

Government Operations committee  I mentioned some statistics from the past where we have about 150 complaints that have still not been fully addressed. Then you heard some more recent statistics from Mr. Worth, and that's why, again, I strongly recommend that there has to be an independent audit of the whole sys

Government Operations committee  I don't think we know the full picture in Canada because the reporting has been so bad in the past. There has been straight-up negligence on dealing with complaints, so we don't even know fully the picture of what's happened here. That's why we need it. We had one audit by the Au

Government Operations committee  I would just like to say that you want to have multiple channels. Canadian public sector workers, anyone, has a constitutional right to blow the whistle directly to the public if there is endangerment to health and safety under Supreme Court of Canada rulings from the past. But i

Government Operations committee  Yes, the Integrity Commissioner is there essentially to receive complaints, but the administration of the whole internal system—and I'd emphasize that—is very much a system that is saying, yes, you can blow the whistle but no one's allowed to hear about it except internally withi

Government Operations committee  The explanation requires me to use a fair bit of technical jargon, so it will really put my French to the test.

Government Operations committee  I think I'm going to switch to English.