Grit Senators brace for showdown on proposed ethics officer

After proposing a single ethics commissioner for the House and the Senate under the massive Federal Accountability Act, Grit Senators are voicing their concerns, setting the stage for a partisan showdown in the Senate.Grit Senators say they oppose the idea of a single ethics commissioner because the Senate traditionally has been independent of the House. The Senate now has its own ethics officer, Jean Fournier, who was appointed in 2005 after Liberal Senators resisted former prime minister Jean Chrétien's attempt to set up a single ethics officer for both Houses.Bill C-2, the Conservatives' omnibus accountability bill tabled last week, proposes to create a single Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner to enforce separate ethics codes for the House and Senate.The bill proposes that the commissioner would be appointed by the prime minister after consultation with all party leaders in both the Commons and the Red Chamber. The candidate would also have to be approved by secret ballot resolutions in both chambers.But just as the ink is drying on Bill C-2, Liberal senators already say the proposal for a single ethics officer will step on the Constitutional toes and traditional independence of the Red Chamber."It's not the role of the executive to tell the Senate how the Senate should be governing. It's up to the Senators to do that," British Columbia Sen. Jack Austin told The Hill Times, adding that Senators across party lines rejected Mr. Chrétien's proposal for a single ethics officer for the same reason. "The Senators said no for a fundamental constitutional and institutional reason. The Senate's Constitutional role is to act as a House of review and as a check and balance with respect to the executive. We're supposed to be independent of the executive and the House of Commons. That's our Constitutional role."NDP ethics critic Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, Man.) said in an interview that the Senate ethics commissioner is "more useless" than the House of Commons' former ethics counselor Howard Wilson, who was not considered independent because he was accountable to Cabinet. Mr. Wilson was replaced when Paul Martin restructured the Ethics Commissioner's Office and appointed current ethics commissioner, Bernard Shapiro, to the job."I think merging the two is going to doom the whole package to fail, frankly, because the Senate has already dug in their heels when we appointed even the toothless ethics watchdog. I'm very concerned this could upset the whole apple cart," Mr. Martin said. "This whole bill could be stalled in the Senate for six months or more, which means it will be doomed and this will become an election platform more than a reform package."However, Quebec Sen. Michael Fortier, also the Public Works Minister, told The Hill Times that he has little reason to believe that Liberal Senators will resist the proposal for a single ethics officer. "I would have thought that at the end of the day there will be consensus around this issue," Mr. Fortier said, adding that Conservative senators have said in caucus that they are "very supportive" of the proposals."The Senate still has its own ethics commissioner and so they're already used to the body. The body exists, and so I don't see why they would have such a difficult time with the new, merged body."In 2003, Liberal Senators resisted Jean Chrétien's ethics bill that would have created a single ethics officer for the House and Senate, arguing that the bill would have interfered with the traditional separation of powers between the House and the Senate. Mr. Chrétien later agreed to allow the Senate to set up its own ethics officer.The Hill Times also spoke with Sen. Daniel Hays, leader of the Opposition in the Senate, who said that he has not yet addressed the issue in Liberal caucus, but pointed out that the proposed system, in which the candidate would be approved in each House by a secret ballot, may address some of the concerns of senators. But he added: "I would anticipate that the provision would be a controversial one with the Senate."After proposing a single ethics commissioner for the House and the Senate under the massive Federal Accountability Act, Grit Senators are voicing their concerns, setting the stage for a partisan showdown in the Senate.Grit Senators say they oppose the idea of a single ethics commissioner because the Senate traditionally has been independent of the House. The Senate now has its own ethics officer, Jean Fournier, who was appointed in 2005 after Liberal Senators resisted former prime minister Jean Chrétien's attempt to set up a single ethics officer for both Houses.Bill C-2, the Conservatives' omnibus accountability bill tabled last week, proposes to create a single Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner to enforce separate ethics codes for the House and Senate.The bill proposes that the commissioner would be appointed by the prime minister after consultation with all party leaders in both the Commons and the Red Chamber. The candidate would also have to be approved by secret ballot resolutions in both chambers.But just as the ink is drying on Bill C-2, Liberal senators already say the proposal for a single ethics officer will step on the Constitutional toes and traditional independence of the Red Chamber."It's not the role of the executive to tell the Senate how the Senate should be governing. It's up to the Senators to do that," British Columbia Sen. Jack Austin told The Hill Times, adding that Senators across party lines rejected Mr. Chrétien's proposal for a single ethics officer for the same reason. "The Senators said no for a fundamental constitutional and institutional reason. The Senate's Constitutional role is to act as a House of review and as a check and balance with respect to the executive. We're supposed to be independent of the executive and the House of Commons. That's our Constitutional role."NDP ethics critic Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, Man.) said in an interview that the Senate ethics commissioner is "more useless" than the House of Commons' former ethics counselor Howard Wilson, who was not considered independent because he was accountable to Cabinet. Mr. Wilson was replaced when Paul Martin restructured the Ethics Commissioner's Office and appointed current ethics commissioner, Bernard Shapiro, to the job."I think merging the two is going to doom the whole package to fail, frankly, because the Senate has already dug in their heels when we appointed even the toothless ethics watchdog. I'm very concerned this could upset the whole apple cart," Mr. Martin said. "This whole bill could be stalled in the Senate for six months or more, which means it will be doomed and this will become an election platform more than a reform package."However, Quebec Sen. Michael Fortier, also the Public Works Minister, told The Hill Times that he has little reason to believe that Liberal Senators will resist the proposal for a single ethics officer. "I would have thought that at the end of the day there will be consensus around this issue," Mr. Fortier said, adding that Conservative senators have said in caucus that they are "very supportive" of the proposals."The Senate still has its own ethics commissioner and so they're already used to the body. The body exists, and so I don't see why they would have such a difficult time with the new, merged body."In 2003, Liberal Senators resisted Jean Chrétien's ethics bill that would have created a single ethics officer for the House and Senate, arguing that the bill would have interfered with the traditional separation of powers between the House and the Senate. Mr. Chrétien later agreed to allow the Senate to set up its own ethics officer.The Hill Times also spoke with Sen. Daniel Hays, leader of the Opposition in the Senate, who said that he has not yet addressed the issue in Liberal caucus, but pointed out that the proposed system, in which the candidate would be approved in each House by a secret ballot, may address some of the concerns of senators. But he added: "I would anticipate that the provision would be a controversial one with the Senate."The Senate currently has 66 Liberals, 25 Conservatives, and nine others.However, Parliamentary expert Ned Franks, professor emeritus at Queen's University, told The Hill Times that a question the Liberal Senators will face is whether they want to force Mr. Harper to go to the polls on a politically popular Accountability Act. Their decision may depend, he said, on the degree to which Liberal senators want to risk drowning their party in a potentially losing election outcome."The real question is why does the Senate want in the first place? How different are their ethics issues compared to the House of Commons?" he said. "If I was a Senator I'd be a bit embarrassed trying to answer that. They can make as much noise as they want, but if they want to fight an election on the issue, it's not ground that I would choose."Duff Conacher, coordinator of ethics watchdog Democracy Watch, said an independent ethics officer is badly needed in the Senate. The current officer is "completely under the control" of a special Senate committee that is designated or established for the purpose of enforcing the Senate ethics code, he said.Mr. Conacher said that most of Mr. Fournier's activities have to be approved by the committee, such as launching an investigation, requesting evidence for an investigation, and disclosing Senators' assets. In addition, Mr. Fournier can only investigate complaints initiated by senators, Mr. Conacher said."It's this way because the Senate does not want independent ethics enforcement," Mr. Conacher said. "The Senate ethics officer is an adviser completely controlled by a committee of Senators, and as a result there is a completely ineffective enforcement of the code."Mr. Fournier has conducted one investigation since his appointment in February 2005, to which Mr. Conacher said: "To say that we haven't had many instances just means that, in many cases, things are being covered up or not looked into that should be looked into. The Senate ethics officer is a complete lapdog, in every way, shape and form."But when asked if the current ethics regime in the Senate was flawed, Sen. Austin said: "No, I think it's perfect. We have had no problems. We have concurrence." He added that the committee does not control all of the ethics officers' investigations. "That isn't the case," Sen. Austin said.Ontario Liberal Sen. David Smith also told The Hill Times that he's keeping an open mind about the proposal for a single ethics officer, but in principle supports the Senate's current code and ethics system.

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Grit Senators brace for showdown on proposed ethics officer

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