CCA Bul­letin 28/06

Ottawa, Thurs­day June 28, 2006

Just the Facts

Bill C-2, known com­monly as the “Fed­eral Account­abil­ity Act” (or “FAA” for short), has cleared a major hur­dle on its way to becom­ing law with its pas­sage through the House of Com­mons on June 21 2006. At first sight, it almost looked at first as if it may get the same speedy pas­sage in the Upper Cham­ber as it did in the House: less than a week later, it has already reached sec­ond read­ing in the Sen­ate and been sent to com­mit­tee for fur­ther study! But the CCA has had con­fir­ma­tion that the Cham­ber of Sober Sec­ond Thought will take the time required to exam­ine this piece of leg­is­la­tion with all the care it requires and will offer the oppor­tu­nity of a hear­ing for those who, like the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA), are con­cerned about such an impor­tant piece of leg­is­la­tion to be rushed through.

What­ever the actual sce­nario unfold­ing, the CCA has writ­ten to each of Canada’s Sen­a­tors in a June 28 let­ter, ask­ing them to exer­cise due dili­gence in their review of the leg­is­la­tion to ensure that no pro­vi­sion within C-2 impair the free flow of ideas nec­es­sary for solid pub­lic pol­icy devel­op­ment. The CCA has worked with suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments over the past 60 years to for­mu­late mea­sured and effec­tive poli­cies and pro­grams, and it is our hope that the review by the Sen­ate will allow this demo­c­ra­tic work­ing rela­tion­ship to con­tinue once the leg­is­la­tion is passed into law.

The CCA has also asked that the Sen­ate ensure that the draft­ing of the reg­u­la­tions flow­ing from the leg­is­la­tion be done through an open and trans­par­ent process to ensure that the nec­es­sary and worth­while objec­tive of account­abil­ity does not impede the work of not-for-profit orga­ni­za­tions engaged in pub­lic pol­icy devel­op­ment. This posi­tion is con­sis­tent with the endorse­ment the CCA gave to Imag­ine Canada’s detailed May 25 brief to the Par­lia­men­tary Com­mit­tee that stud­ied Bill C-2 in the House.

Imag­ine Canada ‘s Teri Kirk appeared on behalf of 14 orga­ni­za­tions that signed on to the brief, includ­ing the CCA. Together, this was the only sec­tor group pre­sent­ing to the Com­mit­tee on the issues of grants, con­tri­bu­tions, con­tract and fund­ing issues gen­er­ally, and its Mem­bers seemed to appre­ci­ate hear­ing from the sec­tor, as many MPs clearly had read the brief and came pre­pared with detailed and thought­ful questions.

Tell me More.

The “FAA” was the first piece of leg­is­la­tion tabled by the new gov­ern­ment fol­low­ing the win­ter elec­tion. Bill C-2 con­tains a host of mea­sures intended to strengthen account­abil­ity in gov­ern­ment, includ­ing greater trans­parency and tighter rules around lob­by­ing, strength­ened finan­cial man­age­ment pro­ce­dures and con­trols, enhanced pro­tec­tion for whistle­blow­ers, clearer account­abil­ity of Min­is­ters and Deputy Min­is­ters, and greater open­ness and trans­parency in gov­ern­ment appointments.

One of the key pieces of the Action Plan related to the “FAA” is a review of grants and con­tri­bu­tions. An Inde­pen­dent Blue Rib­bon Panel on grants and con­tri­bu­tions was recently estab­lished and its mem­bers are: Frances Lankin, Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, United Way of Greater Toronto; Ian Clark, Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Coun­cil of Ontario Uni­ver­si­ties; and Marc Tel­lier, Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the Yel­low Pages Group. The Panel is review­ing grants and con­tri­bu­tions admin­is­tra­tion with a view to elim­i­nat­ing unpro­duc­tive rules and pro­ce­dures, iden­ti­fy­ing bar­ri­ers to access for appli­cants and recip­i­ents, and devel­op­ing a bal­anced approach to over­sight. The Panel is to report to the Pres­i­dent of the Trea­sury Board in Decem­ber 2006. This review is wel­come news for the cul­tural sec­tor, given the range of fed­eral grants and con­tri­bu­tions in the arts, her­itage and cul­tural indus­tries sub-sectors and the grow­ing finan­cial bur­den recip­i­ent orga­ni­za­tions face in report­ing to gov­ern­ment on the funds they receive.

As pre­vi­ously reported, in early May the CCA attended a brief­ing ses­sion with Trea­sury Board offi­cials con­vened by the Hon. Per­rin Beatty, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Cana­dian Man­u­fac­tur­ers and Exporters Association.

Trea­sury Board offi­cials told those present that it would be dif­fi­cult to under­stand the full impact of the “FAA” until the reg­u­la­tions were drawn up after it was passed into law. The offi­cials could not answer spe­cific ques­tions about sit­u­a­tions where one meets a pub­lic offi­cial at a social func­tion and has a dis­cus­sion about an ele­ment of the work of the gov­ern­ment. Would the leg­is­la­tion require the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of a not-for-profit orga­ni­za­tion to write a report on the con­ver­sa­tion and sub­mit it to the appro­pri­ate gov­ern­ment office where it would be posted on their web­site for all to see? How would the pri­vate sec­tor be ensured that strate­gic busi­ness infor­ma­tion is kept con­fi­den­tial? How would this leg­is­la­tion affect the abil­ity or will­ing­ness of pub­lic offi­cials to con­sult with indi­vid­u­als or orga­ni­za­tions with exper­tise or insight into a par­tic­u­lar dimen­sion of pub­lic pol­icy? Again — no clear answers were to be had.

The CCA fully sup­ports the objec­tives of account­abil­ity and trans­parency in deal­ing with pub­lic funds. This is a pri­or­ity for the Prime Min­is­ter and his gov­ern­ment and for obvi­ous rea­sons, they are deter­mined to see it passed into law at the ear­li­est pos­si­ble moment.

How­ever, the Sen­ate now must, out­side of any par­ti­san con­sid­er­a­tions, play a crit­i­cal role in delv­ing into the details of the bill to ensure that it unwit­tingly does no harm to the demo­c­ra­tic process or the pub­lic pol­icy discourse.

What Can I Do?

One can sup­port the prin­ci­ples of account­abil­ity and trans­parency with­out nec­es­sar­ily encum­ber­ing the demo­c­ra­tic process. This is what Cana­di­ans must expect of the Sen­ate as they review this impor­tant and com­plex leg­is­la­tion. You or your orga­ni­za­tion could write a let­ter sim­i­lar to that of the CCA to all Sen­a­tors or selected mem­bers of the Upper House (postage is free). You could also join a group ask­ing to make a pre­sen­ta­tion or co-sign a pre­sen­ta­tion which dove­tails with your par­tic­u­lar pre­oc­cu­pa­tions. One thing is for sure: we will keep you informed of your options over the com­ing weeks and tell you what your CCA intends to do on this front.