Ethics Newsline®

OTTAWA
The Canadian government last week gave the green light to a new law that bolsters oversight of lawmakers and high-ranking officials by creating a new and more powerful ethics post.

That new position — ethics commissioner — beefs up the role played by the current ethics “counselor,” a position that has been widely criticized for lacking bite and influence, reported the Canadian Press.

The legislation adopted last week also creates a new and separate post of Senate Ethics Officer, who will be in charge of monitoring members of the upper house of Parliament for conflict of interest or ethics breaches.

While urging continued progress, a transparency advocacy group called Democracy Watch last week hailed the new law as “the most important government accountability measure ever passed,” according to the CP.

In a separate move, the Canadian government last week began posting online the expenses of all federal ministers, their aides, and top bureaucrats, reported the Reuters news agency.

The step, authorized by a law passed last year, follows several scandals over flagrant and wasteful spending by officials, including former privacy commissioner George Radwanski, who was forced to resign after billing taxpayers for nearly $390,000 in travel expenses in just two years.

The information, which includes travel and hospitality expenses, must be updated every three months.

“Making this kind of information available online demonstrates our commitment to functioning in an ethical and transparent manner,” Treasury Board head Reg Alcock told Reuters.