How the Senate can fix itself
Once again, the Senate is in turmoil. Mike Duffy’s trial is set to begin. The media is reporting that at least 40 current or past Senators have run afoul of the Auditor-General’s review of their expenses. Given the way the Senate has historically done business, perhaps we should be surprised that the number is not higher. However, the current crisis also presents an opportunity for the Senate’s (re)habilitation. It is an opportunity that is too important for the Senate to miss.
Most proposals for Senate reform focus on what others should do to reform the Senate. In all of these reform proposals, the Senate is the object of reform rather than the instigator. Instead, the Senate must initiate reforms to itself.
The Senate must convert itself into a modern and accountable democratic institution. It must drag itself — kicking and screaming if need be — into the 21st century. There are five initiatives that the Senate can do on its own without constitutional amendment to get onto this track.
To begin, the Senate must actually define and enforce the residency requirements for qualifying for appointment to the Senate. Of course, this is but one aspect of the Duffy scandal: Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed broadcaster Mike Duffy to the Senate to represent Prince Edward Island even though Duffy had not reportedly lived on the island for over 20 years (he lived in Ottawa), although he had a vacation cottage there.
Strangely, the Senate has addressed the issue of residency for purposes of reimbursement of expenses that the Auditor-General is currently reviewing. But it has not done so for eligibility for appointment to the Red Chamber in the first place. It must.
Second, the Senate should move to ban outside employment and the earning of outside income. Senators earn a good salary ($142,400 minimum), enjoy life tenure and a sweet pension. The work does not appear particularly demanding. Many Senators earn a significant amount of income from outside sources. This does not foster public confidence in the Senate but it does create conflict of interest problems and potentials for abuse in expense claims. It should end.
Third, if the Senate wants Canadians to take seriously its role as a chamber of sober second thought, it must move to reduce partisanship. Using the Senate for partisan purposes contributes to its legitimacy deficit and undermines the Senate’s independence. Justin Trudeau’s plan is a good first step but it needs to go further. The Senate should prohibit its members from participating in an electoral campaign or engaging in any fundraising activity.
Senators should be like the Speaker of the House of Commons: Formally partisan but distant from the most overtly partisan activities in order to retain the confidence of all members and of the public.
Fourth, the Senate should make itself the most transparent body in Canadian government — an admittedly low standard. There is a popular perception that the Senate is full of “fat cats” — lazy loyal politicos who continue to pad their personal wealth on the taxpayer’s dime while doing little work.
The Senate must move quickly and boldly to open itself to public scrutiny. It should televise and webcast all proceedings. The House of Lords does and so should the Senate of Canada.
Proceedings and information about the Senate should be instantly available and accessible. The Senate fails to grasp the extent to which the public expects that public business will actually be both open and accessible. To members of the Canadian public, accessible means viewable on their smartphone. If Canadians can bank and watch hockey on their smartphones, they should be able to watch their public representatives in action and access information about them, on a new, yet-to-be created “Senate of Canada App.”
The Senate should post the attendance records of every Senator on every vote, every debate and every committee meeting on its website. The Senate should also post the whereabouts of Senators on its website which would be accessible on a Senate of Canada app. This app would show that senators are either engaged in Senate business in the Senate (or elsewhere in Ottawa), in Senate-related business outside of the Red Chamber (for which taxpayers are paying their travel) or private business.
The Senate should post all senators’ expenses on its website. Currently, the Senate of Canada only posts a single-line item reporting on all expenses reimbursed to senators by quarter. This is insufficient by any comparative standards. The House
The Senate should make itself the most transparent body in Canadian government — an admittedly low standard
of Lords publishes far more detailed information.
Finally, it is now clear that the Senate needs independent oversight. It has failed miserably to regulate the conduct of its members. This is a sad conclusion that gives me no joy to make. The Senate is an independent constitutional body but it must surrender some of its autonomy in the name of preserving its independence and fostering public confidence.
The Senate has utterly failed in terms of expenses and financial expenditures. This failure was so acute that it called in the Auditor-General to review every senator’s expenditures. This decision reflected not an acute problem but a chronic one. The problem of lack of oversight will not disappear once the Auditor-General completes his job.
The Auditor-General should either be given continuing jurisdiction to review Senate expenditures or such jurisdiction should be transferred to a strengthened Senate Ethics Officer who would be able to hire the necessary staff to conduct such audits.