OTTAWA (CP) - An influential Conservative senator warns that the Harper government's vaunted ethics legislation is rife with problems that could produce unintended "perverse consequences."
Among other things, Senator Hugh Segal says the proposed $1,000 limit on personal political donations and total ban on corporate and union donations could actually prompt the kind of illicit fundraising practices the Federal Accountability Act is designed to prevent.
He also criticized Tuesday the tighter restrictions on lobbyists and the retroactive application of some measures in the act.
"They are unintended technical difficulties that will produce perverse consequences that are quite unhelpful," Segal told the Upper House shortly before the act was approved in principle and sent to the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee for clause-by-clause examination.
Similar concerns have been raised by Liberal politicians but they've been summarily dismissed by the Conservative government as partisan attempts to delay imposition of the new donation rules until after the Liberals' December leadership convention.
The criticism will be harder to dismiss coming from Segal, a onetime chief of staff to former prime minister Brian Mulroney and a sometime adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The act marks the Tories' response to the Liberal sponsorship scandal and is supposed to herald a new era of clean, accountable, ethical government.
Segal stressed that he "enthusiastically endorses" the intent of the legislation and said he hopes it can be passed within "a reasonable time." In an interview later, he said he will support the bill whether or not his concerns are addressed.
However, Segal urged his fellow senators to examine the bill carefully and correct some of the "technical" glitches.
The act would cut the current personal donation limit to $1,000 from $5,400. And it would totally prohibit contributions from corporations and unions, which are currently allowed to give up to $1,000 to individual election candidates but barred from donating to parties or leadership contenders.
Segal said that radically limiting the amount of money parties and candidates can collect, without simultaneously addressing the amount of money they can spend, could induce politicians to find ways around the law to raise the money they need.
"(It) will create a gap that may produce precisely the kind of circumstances Mr. Gomery's commission was brought into being to look into," he said, referring to the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal.
Justice John Gomery found that both the Liberals and Parti Quebecois received illegal, under-the-table donations from advertising agencies in Quebec.
Segal also questioned the act's requirement that lobbyists publicly disclose more details about whom they lobby and for what reasons.
"Companies, in good faith, should be able to deal with their government in confidential matters without having that information disclosed in an inappropriate fashion to their competition," he said.
Moreover, Segal suggested that prohibiting those who leave government jobs from lobbying the government for five years is too harsh and will result in decreased competition among lobbyists.
He said he hopes the committee will seek legal advice "as to whether the five-year exclusion is, by definition, unwittingly perhaps, oppressive."
And Segal said the act should make a distinction between lobbying for non-profit causes and lobbying for commercial gain.
He added that "any law that seeks to retroactively extend its reach is potentially problematic."
The law would retroactively bar anyone who worked on Harper's transition team immediately after the election from lobbying for five years. That has caused consternation and anger among senior Tories, including transition team head Derek Burney.
The government softened that provision last week just before the act was passed by the House of Commons. It amended the act to allow members of the transition team to appeal to an independent commissioner for an exemption from the ban on lobbying.
The Senate committee studying the act will hear from a number of expert witnesses this week before adjourning for the summer. Hearings will resume in the fall.
Marjorie LeBreton, the government's Senate leader, has said she hopes senators will approve the bill by Thanksgiving. The government wants it to go into effect immediately, which would mean donation rules would change in the middle of the Liberal leadership race.
Liberals have complained that the $1,000 limit means anyone who's donated more than $5 to their party this year would be prohibited from paying the $995 fee to attend the leadership convention.
A number of Liberal senators indicated Tuesday that they won't be rushed in examining such a complex and massive piece of legislation.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/27062006...ator-joins-liberal-criticism-ethics-bill.html
Among other things, Senator Hugh Segal says the proposed $1,000 limit on personal political donations and total ban on corporate and union donations could actually prompt the kind of illicit fundraising practices the Federal Accountability Act is designed to prevent.
He also criticized Tuesday the tighter restrictions on lobbyists and the retroactive application of some measures in the act.
"They are unintended technical difficulties that will produce perverse consequences that are quite unhelpful," Segal told the Upper House shortly before the act was approved in principle and sent to the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee for clause-by-clause examination.
Similar concerns have been raised by Liberal politicians but they've been summarily dismissed by the Conservative government as partisan attempts to delay imposition of the new donation rules until after the Liberals' December leadership convention.
The criticism will be harder to dismiss coming from Segal, a onetime chief of staff to former prime minister Brian Mulroney and a sometime adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The act marks the Tories' response to the Liberal sponsorship scandal and is supposed to herald a new era of clean, accountable, ethical government.
Segal stressed that he "enthusiastically endorses" the intent of the legislation and said he hopes it can be passed within "a reasonable time." In an interview later, he said he will support the bill whether or not his concerns are addressed.
However, Segal urged his fellow senators to examine the bill carefully and correct some of the "technical" glitches.
The act would cut the current personal donation limit to $1,000 from $5,400. And it would totally prohibit contributions from corporations and unions, which are currently allowed to give up to $1,000 to individual election candidates but barred from donating to parties or leadership contenders.
Segal said that radically limiting the amount of money parties and candidates can collect, without simultaneously addressing the amount of money they can spend, could induce politicians to find ways around the law to raise the money they need.
"(It) will create a gap that may produce precisely the kind of circumstances Mr. Gomery's commission was brought into being to look into," he said, referring to the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal.
Justice John Gomery found that both the Liberals and Parti Quebecois received illegal, under-the-table donations from advertising agencies in Quebec.
Segal also questioned the act's requirement that lobbyists publicly disclose more details about whom they lobby and for what reasons.
"Companies, in good faith, should be able to deal with their government in confidential matters without having that information disclosed in an inappropriate fashion to their competition," he said.
Moreover, Segal suggested that prohibiting those who leave government jobs from lobbying the government for five years is too harsh and will result in decreased competition among lobbyists.
He said he hopes the committee will seek legal advice "as to whether the five-year exclusion is, by definition, unwittingly perhaps, oppressive."
And Segal said the act should make a distinction between lobbying for non-profit causes and lobbying for commercial gain.
He added that "any law that seeks to retroactively extend its reach is potentially problematic."
The law would retroactively bar anyone who worked on Harper's transition team immediately after the election from lobbying for five years. That has caused consternation and anger among senior Tories, including transition team head Derek Burney.
The government softened that provision last week just before the act was passed by the House of Commons. It amended the act to allow members of the transition team to appeal to an independent commissioner for an exemption from the ban on lobbying.
The Senate committee studying the act will hear from a number of expert witnesses this week before adjourning for the summer. Hearings will resume in the fall.
Marjorie LeBreton, the government's Senate leader, has said she hopes senators will approve the bill by Thanksgiving. The government wants it to go into effect immediately, which would mean donation rules would change in the middle of the Liberal leadership race.
Liberals have complained that the $1,000 limit means anyone who's donated more than $5 to their party this year would be prohibited from paying the $995 fee to attend the leadership convention.
A number of Liberal senators indicated Tuesday that they won't be rushed in examining such a complex and massive piece of legislation.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/27062006...ator-joins-liberal-criticism-ethics-bill.html