ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION
When the Charbonneau Commission tabled its final report a year ago, it also issued a warning: Corruption and collusion are “dynamic” forces that will continually adapt to change, so extreme vigilance will always be required.
A group of experts — academics, former researchers with the commission, Westmount Mayor Peter Trent and former Liberal MNA Gilles Ouimet — took this message to heart and established a watchdog group to ensure that the end of the four-year inquiry would not be the end of the story. One year later, the group has issued a progress report that has found there is much work left to be done.
Of the 60 recommendations made by the Charbonneau Commission, only 15 have been fully put in place and nine others have been partially carried out. The Liberal government has tabled six bills; some have passed and others are in various stages of the legislative process. But even where action has been taken, some of the measures are inadequate.
For instance, the bill to create the Autorité des marchés publics, an agency to oversee the awarding of contracts, covers the provincial government and public bodies like hospitals or school boards. But it leaves out the municipal sector — which is where much corruption has occurred. The watchdog group also says the new agency has “neither the independence, nor the powers” to be effective.
Legislation designed to protect whistleblowers — by granting anonymity to state employees who report malfeasance and shielding them from reprisals — also inexplicably leaves out the municipal realm and the private sector.
Other recommendations have not been touched at all, such as term limits for mayors, restrictions on elected officials’ activities after they leave office and measures to make it easier for citizens to exercise vigilance.
There is no doubt that implementing all these recommendations is a gargantuan task. Premier Philippe Couillard needs to persevere in the face of the complex nature of the endeavour. This is not work that lends itself to partial completion; there is always a risk of a relapse.
Couillard recently gave an impassioned speech to Liberal party faithful insisting that he runs a clean government despite public opinion to the contrary. While this may well be true, the best way to show his commitment to high ethical standards is to follow the roadmap laid out by the Charbonneau Commission. The fight against corruption is not so much about trusting the personal integrity of the people in charge as setting strict enough ground rules and creating effective institutions to safeguard against impropriety in the first place.
The Charbonneau Commission’s work is too important to be left unfinished.