DW Logo Action
                  Alert
About
                Democracy Watch
Support
                Democracy Watch
What's New
Campaigns
Democracy Watch's Home
                Page
About
                Democracy
Links
Search
Action Alerts
Français

ISSUE: Cleaning Up the Federal Government's Good Government System
BACKGROUNDER

Back to the Good Government Action Alert Letter

Please print and use Good Government sticker/door sign
(PDF format)

Background Information  | The Opportunity for Change  |
Clean Up the System main page


BACKGROUND
All federal political parties fail to keep promises to strengthen government accountability

No matter what issue or problem in Canada concerns you, making the Canadian federal government more accountable will help win the changes and solutions you are seeking, and also help stop the corruption that has infected the government for more than 140 years.

A total of more than 400 federal politicians, 2,000 political staff, 3,000 political appointees, and 350,000 government employees are not effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively or to prevent waste.

Incredibly, the laws and enforcement of parking a car illegally are stronger than most government accountability laws and enforcement systems in Canada, and in some cases the penalties for parking illegally are higher than for government officials who act dishonestly, unethically, secretively, non-representatively or wastefully!

No federal political party has focused on cleaning up the federal government's accountability system in the past 140 years, despite the fact that the "Powers of the Parliament" section of the Constitution of Canada (section 91) states that Parliament's mandate is "to make laws for the peace, order and good government on Canada."

The Progressive Conservative party had majority power from 1984 to 1993, but put in place only two measures -- ethics rules full of loopholes for Cabinet ministers, their staff and senior government officials (and no enforcement system or penalties), and a lobbying disclosure system full of loopholes that allowed secret lobbying.

The federal Liberals had majority power from November 1993 to June 2004, then minority control after the June 2004 election.  The Liberals made many promises in 1993 to clean up the government accountability system but then broke those promises, until finally making some changes in 2003 with new political donations and financing rules, establishing a more independent ethics watchdog for Cabinet ministers, their staff and senior government officials, enacting ethics rules for MPs and senators.

However, the federal Liberals did not do nearly enough to ensure that federal politicians, political staff, political appointees and government employees are effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively or to prevent waste -- mainly because they failed to close loopholes in rules, failed to make enforcement agencies fully-empowered and independent, and failed to enact penalties for rule violators.

During the 2006 election campaign, the Conservatives promised that if they won they would pass an "Accountability Act" containing 55 measures to clean up the federal government's accountability system, as well as implement 5 other democratic reforms.  When the Act was introduced, however, it only contained 30 measures and weakened key ethics rules in 8 ways (To see details about the 30 measures, click here, -- To see details about the Conservatives' broken promises, click here).

The Conservatives have so far implemented 29 of the 30 measures in Act, but 100 undemocratic and accountability loopholes and flaws continue to plague the federal government, and as a result no one in the government is effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively, nor to prevent waste -- To see details about the loopholes and flaws, click here.

As a result, the Global Integrity 2010 Report ranks Canada only 19th out of 105 countries evaluated in the past few years.

And a large majority of Canadians believe that Canada's governments are not accountable or ethical enough.

Provincial governments have similar loopholes in their good government laws, and to find the addresses of your provincial politicians to send a letter calling on them to close the loopholes, click here.

Go to the Good Government Action Alert Letter

top


THE OPPORTUNITY
Many opportunities in next 2 years to close all 100 undemocratic and accountability loopholes in the federal government

There are many key government accountability measures that will be reviewed by the Canadian federal government over the next two years.  No matter what issue or problem concerns you, strengthening the federal government's accountability will help you win the changes and solutions you are pushing for.

The federal Conservatives "Accountability Act" (Bill C-2) passed in December 2006, and it contains 30 government accountability measures -- To see details about the key measures in Bill C-2 (the so-called "Accountability Act"), click here.

There are another 100 loopholes and flaws in the federal government's accountability system (in part because the Conservatives broke their 2006 election promises and included only 30 of 55 promised measures in the Accountability Act -- To see details about the Conservatives' broken promises, click here -- To see details about the loopholes, click here).

All of the good government laws that were changed by the so-called "Accountability Act" will be reviewed by Parliament over the next 2 years -- so all federal political parties need to be pressured now to pass a "Real Government Accountability Act" that will close the remaining 100 loopholes and flaws in these laws that make up the federal government's accountability system.

The Oliphant Commission's May 2010 report also recommended some key changes to the federal government's democratic reform, good government and government accountability systems.

For all of these reasons, now is a key time to send a strong letter to the leaders of all the federal political parties that you are fed up with the dishonest, unethical, secretive, unrepresentative, and wasteful actions of federal politicians, government appointees, political staff, government employees and lobbyists and you want key changes to make everyone involved in the federal government act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively and to prevent waste.

On honesty, ethics, openness, representativeness and waste prevention reforms, the federal government has not heard from citizens or citizen groups enough to counter the resistance of politicians and public officials to make these systemic changes.  It is important that you let the government know that you want significant government accountability reforms.

Democracy Watch coordinates the Government Ethics Coalition, made up of 31 groups from across Canada representing over 3.5 million Canadians, which pushes the federal government to strengthen lobbying and ethics rules and enforcement as part of Democracy Watch's Government Ethics Campaign.

Democracy Watch also coordinates the Money in Politics Coalition, made up of 50 groups from across Canada representing over 3.5 million Canadians, which pushes the federal government to democratize the political donations rules and enforcement as part of Democracy Watch's Money in Politics Campaign.

Democracy Watch also has an Honesty in Politics Campaign, which pushes the federal government and provincial governments to pass an honesty-in-politics law (including measures to restrict party-switching by MPs), an Open Government Campaign, which pushes the federal government and provincial governments to strengthen the access-to-information rules and enforcement system, and a Voter Rights Campaign, which pushes the federal government and provincial governments to strengthen and democratize the voting, appointments, public consultation and waste prevention rules and enforcement systems.

Provincial governments have similar loopholes in their good government laws, and to find the addresses of your provincial politicians to send a letter calling on them to close the loopholes, click here.

Go to the Good Government Action Alert Letter

top


Thank you for participating in our DemocratizACTION Network

Sign-up for Email Action Alert List

Updated September 1, 2011


Please donate online now to democratic reform, government accountability
and corporate responsibility in Canada

Democracy Watch homepage