No, government, we can’t wait Pam Frampton

“We shall, without fail, act with integrity in all aspects of our service, striving for excellence in discharging our responsibilities.” — Premier Dwight Ball’s mandate letter for himself, Dec. 14, 2015

It’s hard to act with integrity without being a champion of transparency. For politicians, that means being open and accountable with the people you have been elected to govern, so that trust in your administration is earned and deserved — not assumed and unwarranted.

Before the provincial Liberals were elected, Dwight Ball said publicly he didn’t think the rules governing political donations and the disclosure thereof were strict enough, and he promised to revamp them.

The Telegram’s James Mcleod interviewed Ball as Liberal party leader in June 2015, reporting: “He said he’d like to see public disclosure happen more than once a year, and he’d consider putting donation limits in place.”

Ball told Mcleod, “I think first and foremost, the disclosure is the most important thing. I think the issue of caps, that’s an issue that all parties would need to be part of.”

Well, here we are nearly two years later and we have neither caps on donations nor timely disclosure of who’s donated how much to whom in this province.

Ball also told Mcleod in that interview that he didn’t think companies that donated to political parties expected anything in return.

My question is, why should companies and trade unions whose fortunes could very well become intertwined with those of government in the future, be permitted to make donations at all?

Last week, Mcleod reported that Canada Fluorspar Inc. gave $15,000 to the provincial Liberal party in 2016, and later that year the government loaned the company $17 million to reopen its mine on the Burin Peninsula. In 2015, an election year, the company donated to both Liberals and Tories.

Was there an expectation there? I don’t know, but at least now the information is open to public perception.

Mcleod pointed out that as things stand, no one knows who’s making donations until many months after the fact.

He only learned of Canada Fluorspar’s 2015 and 2016 contributions by going to the elections office in St. John’s in person and asking to see the filings. If you can’t do that, or if a reporter doesn’t, you’ll have to wait awhile before the information is online.

Elections Newfoundland & Labrador most recent posted donations are for 2014.

In Nova Scotia, there is a cap of $5,000 on political contributions and, since 2007, only individuals have been allowed to donate. “Organizations (corporations, partnerships, unions, etc.) may not,” the Elections Nova Scotia website says.

Political donations for 2015 were posted to the Elections Nova Scotia website in June 2016.

You can look there and find out, for example, that Peter Mackay’s dad, Elmer Mackay, gave $391.66 to the Nova Scotia Tories that year.

In this province, not only can corporations and unions give to political parties, they can be as generous as they want — the sky’s the limit!

In 2014, 50549 Newfoundland and Labrador Inc. gave the Liberals $6,300. Who’s behind the company? Who the heck knows? That’s the thing about our loosey-goosey rules — they deliver neither accountability nor transparency.

Justice Minister Andrew Parsons, in his capacity as Government House Leader, was mandated by the premier to establish an All-party Committee on Democratic Reform, which is supposed to, among other things, tighten the rules on political donations.

Parsons told The Telegram last week he has too much on his plate right now to make that a priority, and it will have to wait awhile yet.

Now, I’ve got no beef with Parsons; in fact, I often agree with his approach to issues.

But on this one, I disagree. Transparency, integrity, credibility — these are more important than ever to the electorate, particularly at a time when we have precious few financial resources to sustain us.

As a taxpayer and a voter, I want to know — and in a timely manner — who is giving generously to which political party. I want caps on donations and I want donations limited to individuals only.

And if the Liberals want to achieve the excellence in discharging their responsibilities, as the premier said in his mandate letter? Then they’d best get moving on all that.