Prime Minister Stephen Harper has followed through on a campaign promise to introduce a sweeping bill designed to make government more transparent and to crack down on unethical actions.

The federal accountability act was tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday morning, along with a detailed Accountability Action Plan.

"It will replace the culture of entitlement that took root under the former government with a culture of accountability," Harper told a news conference in Ottawa.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the new accountability legislation one of his top five priorities during the recent election campaign. (Canadian Press)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the new accountability legislation one of his top five priorities during the recent election campaign. (Canadian Press)

Among other things, the 13-section federal accountability act will:

  • Clean up appointment and contracting processes to remove the potential for political patronage to creep in.
  • Create an independent parliamentary budget officer to analyze the way the government manages its financial planning and conduct research at the request of all-party committees monitoring budget matters.
  • Empower a new director of public prosecutions to conduct criminal investigations under federal law.
  • Create a new conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, replacing two current positions, and require the holder of the job to have a judicial or quasi-judicial background. (Current ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro does not have such a background.)
  • Offer "ironclad protection" for whistleblowers, in Harper's words, and reward bureaucrats who reveal wrongdoing with cash bonuses of up to $1,000.

Opinion surveys under Chrétien to be scrutinized

Treasury Board President John Baird says the Federal Accountability Act will end 'the days of kickback schemes and envelopes with cash.' (Canadian Press)
Treasury Board President John Baird says the Federal Accountability Act will end 'the days of kickback schemes and envelopes with cash.' (Canadian Press)

Another section of the act hints that an inquiry might be called into the spending practices of a past Liberal government.

An independent adviser will be appointed for six months to look at public opinion surveying commissioned while former prime minister Jean Chrétien was in charge, before November 2003, "and determine whether further action, such as a judicial inquiry, is required."

Harper said he would give more details about how the legislation will work in the next few weeks as he travels across the country.

The Conservatives hope to have the bill passed by June.

Act includes measures promised in campaign

In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 23 election that gave him a minority government, Harper promised that the omnibus bill would:

  • Ban all ministers and their political aides, as well as senior public servants, from becoming registered government lobbyists for at least five years from the date they leave their positions.
  • Eliminate all remaining corporate and union donations to federal political parties, and restrict individual donations to $1,000 per person.
  • Give the auditor general the power to "follow the money to the end recipients" as she or he undertakes a review of the $26 billion handed out each year in the form of federal grants, contributions and contracts.

The new act contains measures to address these goals.

"The days of kickback schemes and envelopes with cash are over," Treasury Board President John Baird, whose department is responsible for the legislation, said Tuesday.

Doesn't fully tackle access to information laws

However, the legislation does not contain all the expected changes to Canada's access to information laws.

"We have a separate committee on access to information reform," Baird said before the new bill was released.

"Some of the proposals will go there. Some of them we will move forward with immediately, but we will move forward on all of them."

The act brings more government agents and Crown corporations under the Access to Information Act, including the auditor general's office, Canada Post, Via Rail and the CBC.

Harper first spoke of a plan aimed at "cleaning up" how political business is done in Ottawa in November 2005.

"Politics will no longer be a stepping stone to a lucrative career lobbying government," Harper told a crowd of cheering Conservative MPs less than three weeks before they joined with the Bloc Québécois and NDP to bring down Paul Martin's Liberals.

"We are going to change the way government works in Ottawa, not just change the colour of the letterhead."