Domestic Policy of The Harper Government - The Federal Accountability Act

The Federal Accountability Act

On April 11, 2006, President of the Treasury Board John Baird, on behalf of the Canadian government, tabled the Federal Accountability Act and Action Plan. The plan will reduce the opportunity to exert influence with money by banning corporate, union, and large personal political donations; five-year lobbying ban on former ministers, their aides, and senior public servants; providing protection for whistleblowers; and enhancing the power for the Auditor General to follow the money spent by the government.

While the government hopes to have this act passed before the House of Commons breaks for the summer, questions have arisen surrounding elements of the Federal Accountability Act and how it might affect the 2006 Liberal leadership convention. A $1,000 donation limit has been proposed as part of the Federal Accountability Act with political party convention donations being tied to this amount. The Liberal Party of Canada's leadership convention scheduled for December 2006 contains a $995 convention fee, which under the proposed Accountability Act could prevent convention delegates from donating anything beyond their convention fee or prevent the delegate's presence at the convention should their convention fee in conjunction with any donations prior to the convention put them above the donation limit. Some of the Senate majority-holding Liberal Senators have threatened to stall the Federal Accountability Act in the upper chamber until after December because of the effect the proposed donation limits may have on political party conventions.

On March 13, 2008, Justice John Gomery, who had led the commission into the federal sponsorship scandal, told the government operations Committee that most of the recommendations he made in his report were still not implemented. He added that the prime minister's office was "developing a dangerous concentration of power" and that certain members such as non-elected officials are gaining more power while less-known MPs have little influence. He cited that the government's Federal Accountability Act was drafted well before its report and was short of what was required.