Final Gomery Report Fails to Impress Taxpayers

Narrow Recommendations Insufficient to Thwart Future Scandals

Conservative & NDP Accountability Measures More Encompassing

Ottawa – The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) reacted to Judge John Gomery’s report on the sponsorship scandal, released yesterday, and its recommendations to restore accountability in our nation’s capital. The first Gomery report, released in November, revealed to Canadians that of the $355-million spent on the Quebec sponsorship program approximately $150-million went to Liberal-friendly ad agencies, many of whom charged the federal government for work of little or no value.

“Judge Gomery first volume did a good job detailing the mechanics of Adscam to Canadians, but his second is disappointingly narrow in its sweep,” said CTF federal director John Williamson. “There certainly are some good recommendations. Yet in some cases he identifies real problems, but fails to make specific reform measures. Elsewhere, he simply ignores longstanding troubles altogether, as he did with Ottawa’s dysfunctional Access to Information Act.”

In Restoring Accountability – Recommendations Judge Gomery writes, “I have become convinced that we need to rebalance the relationship between Parliament and the Government in order to attain better accountability within government.” (Emphasis added.) “Unfortunately, the Gomery Commission addressed only one specific scandal and suggested narrow recommendations related to it,” observed Williamson. “But taxpayers expect reforms that will change Ottawa’s culture of secrecy, entitlement and lawbreaking that rarely results in penalties or sanctions being imposed. Yes, such a change will require greater accountability within government. But it also mandates accountability outside government, between public servants and citizens.”

Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper re-affirmed his promise to pass the Conservatives’ own Federal Accountability Act. The proposals include specific measures to reform how political parties and candidates are financed, strengthen the Lobbyist Registration Act, ensure appointments are merit-based, reform the government’s procurement process so it is free from political interference, legislate an effective whistleblower law, increase the powers of the auditor-general as well as those of the ethics and information commissioners, dramatically expand Ottawa’s freedom of information law, improve government auditing, and establish an independent director of public prosecutions. Similarly, The New Democratic Party proposes reforms to fix government and make it more transparent to Canadians.

“If voters had to choose between Judge Gomery’s recommends and the Conservative and New Democratic accountability packages, the choice is an easy one. If the goal is to clean up Ottawa, taxpayers are further ahead with what was promised on the campaign trail. That’s the measuring stick the CTF will be applying in the months and years before us,” concluded Williamson.

John Williamson
Canadian Taxpayers Federation