|
"A call for a new Northern vision" by Brian Mulroney In Ottawa on April 20, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was named Canada’s greenest prime minister by a jury of 12 environmental activists selected by Corporate Knights magazine. Accepting the award, Mulroney not only looked back on his government’s achievements on the environment but looked ahead to the compelling challenges of climate change, particularly as they affect the Arctic, where the melting of the ice cap poses huge issues of sustainable development, as well as implications for Canada’s claims of Arctic sovereignty. Here are excerpts from Mulroney’s call for a new Northern vision. "Accountability is job one" Interview with John Baird The Accountability Act is at the very top of the Harper government’s list of five priorities for the new parliament. It is a massive omnibus Bill, delivering on 13 specific commitments the prime minister made during the campaign. Treasury Board President John Baird is the person responsible for delivering the goods. The day after it was tabled in the House, Baird met with Policy Options editor L. Ian MacDonald at the IRPP’s Montreal office. "By a 3-1 margin, voters rank the health care guarantee most important of the top five priorities" by Nik Nanos To determine voter attitudes on Stephen Harper’s top five priorities list, Policy Options asked SES Research to find out which priorities ranked where. SES Research also asked about the Accountability Act and some of its more controversial features. What came back, from six days in the field in early May, was overwhelming support for the health care guarantee and strong support for the Accountability Act. In both instances the strongest support was found in Quebec. SES president Nik Nanos explains in this Policy Options exclusive. "The old accountability shuffle" by Robin V. Sears Contributing writer Robin Sears looks at the 255-page Accountability Act and concludes sadly that “the Harper team has seized the wrong end of the stick on each of the key dossiers: freedom of information, campaign finance, control of influence peddling, government spending control and performance accountability.” In this withering appraisal, he finds the Bill largely impractical and ultimately impossible. “The medicine,” he writes, “does not attack the disease and may even have fatal side effects.” "C-2 : quand les effets pervers dépassent les conséquences positives" by Christian Rouillard With 264 pages and 13 “themes,” the Federal Accountability Act is ambitious and complex. While some of the measures proposed seem to represent real progress, says Christian Rouillard, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Governance and Public Management at the University of Ottawa, others could have a negative effect on democratic governance. Among the latter, the provisions relating to the protection of whistleblowers and the strengthening of the auditor general’s powers are particularly worrying. The author examines these two measures in detail, and shows how the first could diminish the organizational trust needed for a proper functioning of the public service, while the second could weaken the authority of MPs relative to that of appointed officials. "Limiting donations and eliminating cash - problem solved? Not exactly" by Heather MacIvor The Federal Accountability Act (FAA) is a signature piece of legislation for the Harper government. One of its less discussed aspects is the campaign finance reform, which would eliminate corporate and union donations altogether, while limiting individuals’ donations to parties and candidates to $1,000 each. “The ban on corporate and union donations and the lower ceiling on individual donations,” writes Heather MacIvor, “reduce the legal supply of money for constituency associations, while the demand for funding remains the same.” She also sees problems with enforcement provisions, and concludes that the “real-world effects of the FAA amendments to the election finance regime are difficult to predict.” Problem solved? Not exactly. "Une déprimante culture de l'adjudication" by Gilles Paquet In the wake of the sponsorship scandal, it is not surprising that citizens have been demanding greater transparency and accountability in the public service writes Gilles Paquet, a leading expert on public administration in Canada. Nor is it unexpected that the new government has taken up the battle cry. Unfortunately, says Paquet, the proposed measures are too oriented toward greater monitoring, which could end up stifling innovation and productivity. Pushed to the extreme, this approach could have perverse effects, in particular by reducing trust and limiting responsibility, which the bill seeks to strengthen. This “culture of adjudication” should be done away with in favour of a model based on coordination and voluntary compliance, which encourages flexibility and innovation. "From Gomery to the Accountability Act: the devil is in the details" by C.E.S. Franks Ned Franks, one of the country’s leading academic authorities on accountability in the public service, served as a senior research adviser to the Gomery Commission. Of Gomery’s 19 recommendations, Franks writes, 13 are about “clarifying and strengthening, within the context of the principle of ministerial responsibility, the accountability of the most senior public servants, deputy ministers and heads of agencies.” As deputies are chief operating officers of their departments, with statutory responsibilities of their own in most cases, Franks writes, “these senior officials hold responsibility” and should be held to account on their own, quite apart from the Westminster doctrine of ministerial responsibility. Finally, he points out that “the tenure of Canadian deputy ministers in departments is astonishingly short,” and that “a private business could not be managed properly with a senior management turnover like that.” "Afghanistan, Darfur and the great (unexpected) debate over Canada's military role in the world" by David Rudd The May 17 debate and vote in the House of Commons on extending Canada’s mission in Afghanistan was the first serious debate on Canada’s military role in the world in recent memory, writes the president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies. While Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won the vote by a narrow 149-145 margin, with the help of 24 Liberals, the prime minister now owns a dangerous mission he inherited from the previous government. And then there is the question of whether Canada should play a larger role in any UN peacekeeping force in strifetorn Darfur. After a decade and more of neglect, after years of being off the political radar, the Armed Forces and their role have taken centre stage. "Opting out of electoral reform - why PEI chose the status quo" by Peter McKenna In Canada’s smallest province, the first-past-the-post system of voting tends to disproportionately reward the party with more votes, producing strong majority governments and weak oppositions. Following his landslide re-election in 2003, Premier Pat Binns appointed former provincial chief justice Norman Carruthers as head of a commission that recommended a modest mixed-member proportional system. The Carruthers report was followed up by the Commission on PEI’s Electoral Future, and finally by a referendum in November 2005, in which the Conservative government required a double supermajority of 60 percent approval in 60 percent of the ridings. In the event, nearly two voters in three opposed the reform, and only one in three bothered to vote, in a province where electoral turnout normally exceeds 80 percent. From Charlottetown, Peter McKenna offers the analysis of a disappointed reform advocate. "Divergences relatives à l'évolution des appuis à la souveraineté-partenariat depuis dix ans" by Maurice Pinard Well-known public opinion poll expert Maurice Pinard compares the results of several surveys on the topic of Quebec sovereignty conducted by different polling firms between 1995 and 2005. He finds the pollsters agree there was a gradual decline in support for the sovereignty-partnership option, followed by a gradual upswing until the end of 2005. They also agree there was a generational effect, in the sense that the members of an age cohort that favoured the “Yes” side tend to continue to do so as they grew older. However, the polling firms differ on the overall level of support for the “Yes” side in 2005 — by as much as 10 percent. There is no consensus on the reasons for this divergence, but the nonresponse rate could be a factor. This phenomenon should be carefully monitored and analyzed, Pinard concludes. Book Excerpt: Governing with the Charter: Legislative and Judicial Activism and Framers' Intent by James B. Kelly In this excerpt from Governing with the Charter, nominated for a Donner Prize, Concordia University’s James B. Kelly argues that while the Courts have interpreted the Charter of Rights, the Cabinet determines how decisions are made and legislation shaped in light of it. Book Review: F. Leslie Seidle reviews Governing with the Charter: Legislative and Judicial Activism and Framers' Intent by James B. Kelly [summary not available] "Activisme judiciaire ?" by Alain Noël [summary not available] |
