Rita de Santis keeps an open mind on reform
Rita de Santis is the first to admit that some of what she’s doing as a minister can be a hard sell, to the bureaucrats, her fellow ministers and to a public in a cynical mood.
But when Premier Philippe Couillard named her minister of democratic reforms and access to information in a January 2016 cabinet shuffle, he repeated what he has said before: he is in favour of more, not less transparency.
It was a surprising statement. Political parties are much better at calling for such reforms while in opposition than when they are in power, and the pressures of office lead to the temptation to clam up.
Yet in his first speech as premier, in April 2014, Couillard said he wanted his government to be the most transparent in history.
“It’s their house, they (citizens) have the right to know what’s going on and how much it’s costing them,” Couillard said.
It can be argued his government — which has spent months bogged down in ethical problems — has strayed from that lofty goal, largely to protect its own hide in the relentless media search for scandal.
On the other hand, the Liberal government’s swift moves last week to defend journalists’ freedoms in the wake of police spying allegations say something about its attitude.
The intention is on the books, and De Santis is taking it seriously even if she concedes the reforms she and her predecessors in the same role have undertaken — a revolution in the closed world of the Quebec government where “less rather than more,” information is part of the culture — are not exactly exciting topics for debate at the dinner table.
“All of this is not sexy but I have to inform the public,” De Santis said in a recent interview with the Montreal Gazette.
“I have to encourage the public to participate. I want people to start thinking more about open government. I want it to be more present in people’s minds.”
Her latest project is the creation of a set of guidelines for ministry and agencies on how to consult the public before decisions are made. To get there, she plans to consult the people on how it can work.
On Monday, De Santis kicked off a website discussion through which people can comment on how the system could work. There are two options. As of Nov. 7 you can leave a comment on the site devoted to the province’s new digital policy: numerique.economie.gouv.qc.ca/ theme/4/
The framework will also be available (in French and English) for consultation and comment on the De Santis’ secretariat’s website at www.institutions-democratiques. gouv.qc.ca.
More detailed reports or comments may be sent to: ministre. SRIDAIministre@mce.gouv.qc.ca.
In the interview, De Santis sketched out a few principles that probably will become the basis of the consulting system. For example, a minister or government agency seeking feedback should have in mind that it intends to listen seriously and show the exercise is meaningful.
On the other hand, citizens being consulted have to treat the process seriously and comport themselves in a respectful manner, confident in the knowledge the feedback they provide will be considered.
It’s the latest in a series of measures designed to give meaning to the concept of open government, De Santis said. It comes along at a time where Quebecers are increasingly aware of their rights to speak out about everything from drilling for oil on Anticosti Island to the arrival of Uber in the taxi world.
There have been other government efforts on the issue — some of which came into place before she was minister.
Since January 2015, cabinet ministers have been obliged to make their agendas public. And as of April 1 that year, minister’s meetings with such non-government players as mayors or the head of a business lobby have been tabulated and made public.
But the elephant in the room remains Quebec’s antiquated access to information legislation. The former Liberal minister responsible for the bill, house leader JeanMarc Fournier, kicked off a reform process to that law in March 2015.
That led to a white paper in June 2015 and a bill reforming the system being tabled in the legislature.
While happy the bill was generally well received during hearings, De Santis, a lawyer before she was a politician, has identified a few areas where it is lacking, including the scarcity of data made available by government ministries and agencies. And even the data that is available is not in a usable form, De Santis said.
De Santis said she is considering asking all ministries to come up with a three-year plan to determine what data they will make available and how they will make it public.
De Santis says her objective is to have the law overhauled — similar reforms are underway at the federal level — before the end of June 2018, which means before the government’s current mandate runs out and Quebec goes into a general election that fall.
Not afraid of debating the issues, De Santis will be on a panel discussing the law at the annual meeting of the FPJQ Nov. 18-19.
De Santis says the process is long but she believes her strategy of working within the government machine will pay off.
“I’m not hitting a brick wall,” De Santis said. “I am seeing more collaboration. “To me democracy is a very fragile thing,” De Santis said. “We have to keep it alive. If we don’t do it, I don’t know who’s going to do it, particularly in a world that is so high tech it scares me.”