House of Commons Debates VOLUME 147 Ï NUMBER 045 Ï 2nd SESSION Ï 41st PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Monday, February 10, 2014 Speaker: The Honourable Andrew Scheer CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) 2765 HOUSE OF COMMONS Monday, February 10, 2014 The House met at 11 a.m. behaviour of the government toward Elections Canada. It is consistent. It feels that it has the right to intimidate Elections Canada, which is an agent of this Parliament. That is something that Bill C-520 is trying to deal with, but in a reverse way. Prayers On the one hand, in this legislation we have the Chief Electoral Officer, in an apolitical fashion, trying to improve the quality of our elections. The Chief Electoral Officer has brought forward ideas on PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS how that could be done. For example, with the robocalls incident, Ï (1105) Elections Canada brought forward recommendations on how that could be dealt with. Instead of demonstrating respect for Elections [English] Canada, the government did the absolute opposite. It not only did not SUPPORTING NON-PARTISAN AGENTS OF PARLIAMENT listen to what Elections Canada, an agent of Parliament, had to say, it ACT changed the legislation to make it even more difficult for Elections Canada to be effective in regard to the Chief— The House resumed from November 20, 2013 consideration of the The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bruce Stanton): Order, please. The motion that Bill C-520, An Act supporting non-partisan agents of hon. Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification is rising Parliament, be read the second time and referred to a committee. on a point of order. Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, it Hon. Michelle Rempel: Mr. Speaker, I look forward to a spirited is with pleasure that I rise to speak to Bill C-520 this morning. debate on Bill C-23, the fair elections act, I believe in under an hour. I find it most interesting that we have a Conservative member I would ask my colleague to entertain us with some relevancy to this introducing legislation on issues surrounding oaths, if I can put it particular piece of legislation. that way, that would have our commissioners or agents of Parliament The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bruce Stanton): The hon. minister be more transparent. We see that coming from the Conservatives. If makes a point with respect to relevance. It is pertinent, of course, and there is a need for us to bring in legislation, I suggest that the it is part of the Standing Orders. I would remind all hon. members member might want to consider legislation that would demonstrate that in the course of their 10 minutes for comments, members have a more respect for those same official parliamentary agents that the great deal of freedom as to how they might connect various ideas to government tends to want to attack. That is something I will focus the questions before the House. I do see that the member is in fact some attention on in my comments today because Elections Canada tying those ideas together, and I know that he will get around to the and the Chief Electoral Officer are under attack by the Conservative point before we finish the end of the 10 minutes. majority government. The hon. member for Winnipeg North. On the one hand we have a bill that is trying to say we should Mr. Kevin Lamoureux: Mr. Speaker, I appreciate your have the Chief Electoral Officer proclaim himself or herself as a comments. completely neutral body that would not be politically engaged, in essence, attacking the integrity of our agents of Parliament. I do not I can appreciate why the Conservative member would be see the merit in this bill and why there is the need for it. What sensitive in terms of what is being said, which is to know exactly offends me is the fact that it is coming today, at a time when we have what Bill C-520 is proposing to do. It is talking about the the majority Conservative government bringing in time allocation on parliamentary agents of this House. It is challenging those agents a piece of legislation that is going to have a profound negative in a way that speaks to the integrity of those offices. impact overall on elections in Canada. On the one hand the government is trying to say that it wants more I would like to emphasize the degree to which I am making integrity in its offices, in a backhanded way, by bringing in this reference to this. Last week, I was in the procedures and House legislation. On the other hand we have a government that affairs committee. We had the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Mayrand, demonstrates a lack of respect for those very agents that this there. It was interesting to sit in my position, opposite the legislation is trying to deal with. That is true. In order to demonstrate government, and watch the government verbally attack the Chief that truth, I am using a very specific example, that being Elections Electoral Officer. I found it interesting to compare that to the general Canada, which is a topical issue today. 2766 COMMONS DEBATES February 10, 2014 Private Members' Business The member who stood on a point of order said the Conservatives standing commitment to increasing accountability and transparency, are interested in hearing what I have to say about the elections act which is why our government is pleased to support it. that they have introduced. That is not true either. They brought in time allocation to prevent members from being able to speak on that The bill provides that anyone applying to work in the office of an piece of legislation. It is being forced through after only a couple of agent of Parliament would be required to disclose partisan political days of debate, which is somewhat shameful in itself. activities dating back 10 years. Before the interruption, I was suggesting to the House that we Agents of Parliament and those who work in their offices must have to have confidence and faith in our agents of Parliament and we declare whether they intend to occupy a politically partisan position should be able to demonstrate that. The bill that is being proposed by while continuing to occupy the position of agent of Parliament or the member is an underhanded way of suggesting that there is work in the office of such an agent. They would also be required to something wrong with our current agents of Parliament. That is not make a written declaration that they will fulfill their duties in a non- the case. partisan manner. The disclosures would be posted online, for transparency. We in the Liberal Party, and I also suspect members of the New Democratic Party, have faith in our institutions, in our agents of The bill would also allow any member of the Senate or the House Parliament. We look to the government to demonstrate more respect of Commons to request that an agent of Parliament investigate for those offices. allegations of partisan activity by the agent's staff. I was at the meeting where reference was made to the Chief The bill would apply to the Auditor General, the Chief Electoral Electoral Officer and saw first-hand how the Conservative govern- Officer, the Commissioner of Official Languages, the Privacy ment treats the independent office of Elections Canada, something Commissioner, the Information Commissioner, the Senate Ethics Canadians have seen indirectly through media reports. The Officer, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, the government needs to demonstrate a whole lot more goodwill. The Commissioner of Lobbying, the Public Sector Integrity Commis- way to do that is by ensuring that the agents are part of the process sioner, as well as the staff employed under each agent of Parliament. and that respect is demonstrated toward them. How does one do that? When election laws are changed, there is a responsibility to We know that a high degree of transparency makes government work with our parliamentary agents, in this case the Chief Electoral more accountable. That is why we have been working to make more Officer. There is a responsibility to listen to what he or she has to say information available to Canadians. By proactively making informa- about election laws. That is something the government did not do; it tion available, it becomes accessible to anyone who may be did not have any form of consultation. interested, and this allows the public and parliamentarians to hold the government to account. Therefore, when we look at Bill C-520, what the government is doing, through a backbench member of Parliament, is demonstrating Allow me to speak to a number of the initiatives that our a lack of respect for the positions we have that are important to all of government has taken toward greater transparency. In April, the Canada, whether that is the Chief Electoral Officer, the Auditor President of the Treasury Board unveiled the expenditure database, a General, the Commissioner of Official Languages, the Privacy searchable online database that for the first time ever consolidates all Commissioner, the Information Commissioner, the Conflict of information on government spending in one place. We are talking Interest and Ethics Commissioner, the Commissioner of Lobbying, about everything from spending on government programs to or the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, all of whom play a operational spending on things like personnel and equipment. What critical role in the functioning of our democracy in Canada. We this means for Canadians is that they would have a more complete challenge the government to demonstrate more respect for those picture of how taxpayer money is spent.