Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein, pictured in 2011, has called for strengthening the rules governing MPs, cabinet ministers and public officials.Pawel Dwulit/The Canadian Press
Last week, the federal conflict of interest and ethics commissioner used his annual report to call on Ottawa to strengthen the rules governing MPs, cabinet ministers and public officials.
There are some small positive steps in Konrad von Finckenstein’s recommendations. Mostly, though, they don’t go anywhere near far enough to fix a weak regime that allowed former prime minister Justin Trudeau to cultivate a top-down culture of indifference to the rules during his decade in office.
Mr. Trudeau himself violated the Conflict of Interest Act four times in office. Two of his cabinet ministers, Bill Morneau and Mary Ng, and his Parliamentary secretary, Greg Fergus, were also found to have violated the Act.
It got so bad that Mario Dion, who served as conflict of interest commissioner from 2018 to 2023, recommended that the Trudeau government send its cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries for remedial lessons on the rules.
After Mr. Dion left office in 2023, Mr. Trudeau quickly named the sister-in-law of a senior Liberal cabinet minister as interim commissioner, a dodgy appointment that only lasted three weeks thanks to the perfectly foreseeable outcry.
Mr. Trudeau then let the post sit empty for four months, during which all conflict of interest investigations came to a halt. He named Mr. von Finckenstein as interim commissioner in August, 2023, and then appointed him to a full seven-year term in March, 2024.
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One good thing Mr. von Finckenstein recommends is allowing the federal lobbying commissioner to temporarily take over the duties of the conflict of interest commissioner when no interim or permanent replacement has been appointed. That would prevent prime ministers from neutering the office by dragging their feet on filling the top job.
Mr. von Finckenstein also makes the sensible point that cabinet ministers, who are governed by the Conflict of Interest Act, should be required to avoid apparent conflicts of interest and not just real ones. The Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons, which governs MPs, mentions both real and apparent conflicts.
He also suggests raising the fine for failing to meet the reporting requirements in the Act to $3,000 from $500. That seems necessary, since he says “too many public office holders continue to contravene the most basic compliance rules.”
But his other recommendations are off-base. He proposes expanding the types of financial investment vehicles that he can exempt from reporting if he believes they pose no risk of conflict of interest. He mentions tax-free savings accounts, exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrencies as examples.
But Mr. von Finckenstein’s focus should be on enforcing more public disclosure, not less. Prime ministers can still hide their assets behind numbered companies, as Mr. Trudeau did.
It is also ludicrous to propose stiffer penalties for administrative violations but not for anything else.
Ms. Ng, for instance, gave $22,790 in federal contracts to a PR firm owned by a close friend. Her breach of the public trust was so blatant that this space called for her resignation in 2022.
She instead got off scot-free. Why not recommend a stiff fine in the tens of thousands of dollars – a deterrent that would impress the basic rules on cabinet ministers a lot more efficiently than any remedial session with the conflict of interest commissioner’s office?
Mr. von Finckenstein should also be recommending the end of sponsored travel, which allows MPs to accept fully paid trips – meals and ground transportation included – from private companies, unions and public interest groups.
It is also past time to address the fact that the Act lets cabinet ministers accept gifts, including lavish holidays, from wealthy friends without defining the word “friend” or setting any limit on the value of the gift.
And while we’re at it, it’s time to change the language in the Conflict of Interest Code for MPs that only “expects” them to follow the rules, rather than requires them to do so.
There are so many loopholes in Parliament’s conflict of interest rules that Mr. von Finckenstein’s recommendations amount to trying to fix a broken dam with popsicle sticks.
As commissioner, he should be calling on Parliament to take steps to protect the public’s trust in the federal government, instead of tinkering with a failing status quo.