Accountability act is the wrong direction

published on 04/15/2006 Burnaby Now

In My Opinion column by Mike Sporer

When the Conservative government tabled the Federal Accountability Act this week, it made me nervous. The purpose of the Federal Accountability Act, according to at least one Conservative Party news release, is to "restore faith in government." If that is the Conservative plan, it is a bad plan.

Faith in government is almost always misplaced. And restoring faith in government will help fuel the political left and harm the country in the long term. A burning skepticism towards politicians and political institutions serves the people well. We do not need the Conservatives dousing that healthy skepticism so that people with restored faith in government run in droves to Liberal politicians and New Democrat politicians who promise to deliver the moon and the stars at no cost.

But that is not the only problem with the Federal Accountability Act. While this monster-sized legislation gives state agencies like the Office of the Auditor-General more power to monitor government activity, these monitoring agencies are unlikely to reduce abuses of government spending over the long term. We had an auditor-general in Canada at least as far back as the 1870s. Considerably more than a century later, the cup of optimism does not runneth over.

You are worried about exactly who, other than the auditor-general, can monitor program spending so we avoid another sponsorship program scandal? The simple answer is: no more sponsorship programs. Period. Problem solved. Increased scrutiny by the auditor-general is not required.

Then there is the great and growing horde of commissioners in Canada: ethics commissioners, conflict-of-interest commissioners, information commissioners, privacy commissioners, integrity commissioners and now the accountability act promises a commissioner of lobbying to oversee the changes to lobbying rules. These commissioners have offices, budgets, assistant commissioners, deputy commissioners, advisory committees and their very own entrenched bureaucracies. Let's be honest, the country is already drowning in commissioners.

Of course, as with other modern-day bills being introduced in Western democracies, the Federal Accountability Act sounds really good. It is part of that wonderful new generation of laws where the legislation itself is carefully given an Orwellian name, just like the No Child Left Behind Act that George Bush signed into law in 2002.

Political strategists know that the electronic media can be counted on to repeat the name of the legislation over and over on both radio and television without really getting into the substance of it. And that sound bite is what the political spin doctors are looking for.

The only real way to bring accountability to government and reduce the constant and continual abuse of the Canadian taxpayer is to cut taxes on income and investment and reduce the tax base that fuels Ottawa.

This Conservative government should be up to the task. Best they get on with it and not get sidetracked by irrelevancies.

Mike Sporer is a director of the Canadian Justice Review Board and a partner in the New Westminster law firm of Sporer Mah and Company. He practises personal injury law.