Thursday, December 3, 2009

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch criticized the Ontario Liberals for their falsely named "Good Government Act" Bill 212 because the bill (which just passed) still allows for ongoing dishonesty in politics, secret and unlimited donations to all types of candidates, secret lobbying, excessive secrecy overall, and conflicts of interest at the provincial and municipal government level across Ontario, and essentially guts the independence of the provincial public inquiry process.

To their credit, the Ontario NDP proposed many key amendments to Bill 212, but almost all of them were rejected by the Liberals who also used their majority in the legislature to shut down review of the bill.

"By calling a bad government law the Good Government Act, the Ontario Liberals have proven yet again how power corrupts the attitudes of politicians and their staff," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch.  "Given that Bill 212 allows ongoing dishonesty in politics, secret unlimited donations, secret lobbying, excessive secrecy, and Cabinet ministers and municipal politicians to make decisions about matters in which they have a financial interest, as well as guts the independence of public inquiries, it is not worthy of being called the Good Government Act."

In addition, Democracy Watch called on Toronto City Council to go much further than its proposed ban on donations from corporations, union and other organizations, including closing the loophole that allows for secret, unlimited donations from anyone to any city election candidate (as long as the candidate does not use the donation for their campaign), and closing other loopholes that allow for secret lobbying in Toronto.

The following summarizes the key undemocratic and unethical loopholes that Bill 212 leaves open, as well as the Bill's measures that are simply too weak, despite the proposed amendments by the Ontario NDP noted below to strengthen the Bill that were rejected by Liberals (To see more details about the many accountability and undemocratic loopholes in Ontario's government system, click here to see Democracy Watch's Report Card on the 2007 Good Government Ontario Political Party Election Platforms, and other key documents):

General measures

• Bill 212 does not require anyone involved in provincial politics to be honest, even though dishonesty is the top political concern of voters;
• the Bill fails to require the provincial and municipal governments to consult in a meaningful way before making any significant decisions (as is generally required for decisions that have a significant impact on the environment or energy system (under the Environmental Assessment Act and Energy Board processes));
  
• the Bill fails to close the loopholes that allow for secret unlimited donations and loans to all types of provincial political candidates (as long as they don't use the donation or loan for their campaign -- NOTE: the Federal Accountability Act closed the secret donation loophole for federal election candidates (but not for federal nomination race or party leadership candidates) and a current federal Conservative government bill proposes to ban loans from anyone or organization other than financial institutions);
• the Bill fails to ban donations and loans to provincial political election candidates by corporations, unions and other organizations (in violation of the fundamental democratic principle of one-person, one-vote);
• the Bill fails to limit donations and loans to provincial political candidates to a level that an average Ontario voter can afford (NOTE: the Federal Accountability Act followed Quebec and Manitoba's lead by limiting donations to federal political parties, riding associations and candidates to $1,100 annually);
• the Bill fails to establish democratic annual and campaign public funding for provincial parties and candidates and municipal candidates (based on number of voter supporters, as at the federal level in Canada);
  
• the Bill fails to require disclosure (as is required in the U.S.) of the employer and major organizational affiliations of provincial political donors and lenders, nor of volunteer labour, allowing corporations, unions and other organizations to easily funnel donations of money and services through employees and board members in secret (as is alleged in Quebec's current money in politics scandals);
• the Bill fails to require disclosure of donations made to provincial parties and provincial and municipal candidates a few days before any election so voters can know who is bankrolling whom before they vote);
  
• the Bill fails to empower and mandate the provincial and municipal election watchdog agencies to audit the financial statements of candidates and parties annually and after elections (thereby making it easy for candidates and parties to have loyal auditors cover up spending and expense abuses);
  
• the Bill fails to close loopholes in the provincial and municipal freedom-of-information and open meeting laws that allow the government and councils to keep records and meetings secret that the public has a clear right to know;
• the Bill fails to close the loopholes that allow Cabinet ministers, their staff and appointees, and all Ontario provincial and municipal politicians to make decisions on matters in which they have a financial or other conflict of interest (as long as the matter is of general application or affects a broad group of people or organizations)
• the Bill fails to increase the cooling-off period for former politicians, their staff and appointees, thereby allowing them to become lobbyists too soon after they leave provincial and municipal politics
• the Bill fails to empower the Auditor General and municipal auditors to penalize people who violate spending rules, and;
  
• the Bill fails to strengthen the provincial and municipal whistleblower protection systems;
  

Municipal Elections Act measures

• the Bill does not apply to the 2010 municipal elections in Ontario (NOTE: the NDP proposed to apply the Bill to the 2010 elections);
  
• the Bill fails to close the loopholes that allow for secret unlimited donations and loans to municipal election candidates (as long as they don't use the donation or loan for their campaign -- NOTE: the NDP proposed to close these loopholes);
• the Bill allows corporations, unions and other organizations to donate to municipal election candidates (NOTE: the NDP proposed to close this loophole, and even though Toronto City Council is considering closing it, unless the Council closes the other loopholes wealthy interests will still be allowed to legally buy off city election candidates in secret);
• the Bill allows donations to multiple municipal election candidates to a combined total of $5,000, which is far more than an average voter can afford (NOTE: the NDP proposed to lower the combined total donation limit to $1,500);
• the Bill does not require disclosure (as is required in the U.S.) of the employer and major organizational affiliations of municipal political donors and lenders, nor of volunteer labour allowing corporations, unions and other organizations to easily funnel donations of money and services through employees and board members in secret (NOTE: the NDP proposed to close this loophole);

Public Inquiries Act measures

• the ruling party retains the sole power to initiate public inquiries and arbitrarily set and/or change their terms of reference even though Cabinet ministers are often in a conflict of interest when making these decisions (NOTE: the NDP proposed that a majority of leaders of parties with seats in the legislature be empowered to initiate a public inquiry, and that terms of reference be set by agreement of all party leaders);
  
• the Bill allows for public inquiries to be conducted in private (NOTE: the NDP proposed to require public hearings);
• the Bill allows for inquiry reports to be kept secret or released only in part by the government if the commission misses a fixed-end date deadline (NOTE: the NDP proposed to require the disclosure of all inquiry reports);
• the Bill prohibits inquiry commissioners and staff from every disclosing any information about the commission (NOTE: the NDP proposed to eliminate this prohibition), and;
• the Bill gives a Cabinet minister the power to set and change a budget for all commissions of inquiry (instead of the Auditor General -- NOTE: the NDP proposed to allow commissioners to submit a budget to the Minister and to change it if circumstances change).

An actual Good Government Act would have contained all the measures summarized above.