CODES OF CONDUCT - QUEBEC
Commissioner immediately and remedy the situation. Finally, gifts worth more than
$200 from the same source must be declared to the Commissioner.
Outcomes: To be Determined The Code of ethics and conduct of the Members of the National Assembly has been fully in force since 1 January 2012. For the past two years, the Commissioner has spent much of his time and energy presenting and explaining the new rules to the Members,7
who now find themselves
under the major obligation of filing a disclosure statement of their own and their family members’ private interests. Though familiar enough to Parliamentarians in other Canadian assemblies, this is a new addition to the workload of the Members of the National Assembly. Under the Code, the Commissioner may request a meeting with a Member in order to verify the Member’s disclosure statement and discuss their obligations under the Code. In this regard, the Commissioner has thus far fulfilled his role in systematic fashion. During his first term, he met with all private Members and Cabinet Ministers individually to discuss their disclosure statements.8
early to tell whether it will change the public’s perception of its elected representatives. But we may safely assume that the more the Members’ conduct is seen to be exemplary, the more the public will be inclined to find them trustworthy. The Code constitutes a clear commitment on the part of the Members of the National Assembly to observe the rules prescribed for them. By 1 January 2015, the Commissioner must submit a report to the President on the implementation of the Code and the advisability of amending it. The report will then be studied
by the competent parliamentary committee. At that point, the Members will have an opportunity to state their views on whether the Code serves the objectives they had in mind when they adopted it.
Endnotes This exercise
was useful to both groups, as it has helped them “domesticate” the Code. The Members clearly take
in favour of the idea, expressed by some of their number, that the office of jurisconsult be retained. An amendment was passed to that effect, thus allaying any fears that Members’ requests for advisory opinions, made in good faith, could result in an inquiry being launched against them. The jurisconsult’s advisory
opinions are confidential and not binding on the Commissioner, but they may not be given to Members under verification or inquiry by the Commissioner until the verification or inquiry process has been completed. Members are required to file an annual disclosure statement
with the Commissioner concerning their own and their family members’ private interests, including income, immovable property other than personal residential property, business interests, and any professional, industrial or commercial activities they are engaged in. Cabinet Ministers have to make a more detailed statement that includes their assets and liabilities, their immovables, and information on any proceedings in which they are involved before a court of law or an adjudicative body. Members who, despite their
best efforts, find themselves in a conflict-of-interest or incompatibility- of-office situation must inform the
the new rules very seriously, as is demonstrated by the number of requests addressed to the Commissioner. In 2012–2013, the Commissioner answered 237 such requests (including 19 for written advisory opinions),9
in an
Assembly that numbers only 125 Members. Furthermore, several former Cabinet Ministers consulted the Commissioner about post-term rules of conduct. This not only demonstrates that Members require clarification on various points of the Code, but also that they are strongly motivated to act in accordance with its ethical principles. As the Code was implemented only two years ago, it is still much too
1. Presentation by Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, President of the National Assembly, at the Col- loque sur l’éthique et les conflits d’intérêts dans la vie politique, 25 November 1999, 6 pp. 2. Bisson, C “Pourquoi légiférer l’éthique? Pour apaiser le public ou pour soutenir l’exercice d’une charge publique?”, Éthique publique, Vol. 13, No. 1 (2011). 3. Compilation of Québec Laws and Regula- tions (CQLR), chapter C-23.1. 4. CQLR, chapter T-11.011. 5. The other Officers of the National Assem- bly are the Public Protector and the Lobbyists Commissioner. 6. The first Ethics Commissioner, Jacques Saint-Laurent, was unanimously appointed by the Members of the Assembly on 9 December 2010. 7. Thus far, the Commissioner has produced two inquiry reports. On 28 March 2012, he ruled that an inquiry request filed by a Member against a former Minister was unfounded (Eth- ics Commissioner, Activity Report 2011-2012, pp. 23-24). The second report, produced in June 2012, was the result of the Commis- sioner’s own initiative to inquire into a Member’s prolonged absence from the House. For more information, see
http://www.ced-qc.ca/. 8. Ethics Commissioner, Activity Report 2011- 2012, p. 16. 9. Ethics Commissioner, Activity Report 2012- 2013, p. 33.
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