OTTAWA - The Harper government is poised to introduce a Senate Ethics Act, aimed at subjecting unelected senators to oversight from the same ethics officer who monitors the conduct of MPs.
However, Liberals say the act has zero chance of passing and call it a purely diversionary tactic aimed at deflecting attention from the Tory government's management of the economy.
Stephen Fletcher, minister of state for democratic reform, is to introduce the act Thursday. It is expected to propose creation of a single parliamentary ethics officer for both the Senate and House of Commons.
A similar provision was initially included in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's vaunted Federal Accountability Act in 2006 but was withdrawn in the face of resolute opposition in the Liberal-dominated Senate.
Two previous attempts by Liberal governments to create a single ethics regime also ran into brick walls in the Senate, where opposition to the idea crosses party lines.
Conservative and Liberal senators alike have long contended that a separate Senate ethics watchdog is necessary to maintain the independence of the upper chamber.
"In any bicameral system in the world, be it in the Westminster parliament or in the American Congress . . . each legislative house is responsible for the disciplinary functions over its members," said Liberal Senator Serge Joyal.
"Why? Because each house should remain independent from one another."
Joyal said the Senate's current ethics officer makes annual public reports and applies an ethics code that is very similar to that which applies to MPs. Moreover, he argued that the Senate ethics system has worked well without controversy, unlike some of the Commons ethics officers who've been accused of being partisan lap dogs.
Sources say the Harper government also intends to reintroduce, by the end of the month, two bills imposing an eight-year limit on senators' terms and requiring future senators to be elected.
Both measures were introduced twice before during Harper's first term but were never passed due to strenuous opposition from Liberal senators and a number of provinces which questioned their constitutionality.
Joyal said the ethics act and other coming Senate bills are all "non-starters." But he said the Tories are playing to their core supporters in Alberta, where "there's a prevailing opinion that the Senate doesn't function properly."
He doubted the government will score many points by Senate-bashing in the midst of the economic crisis.
"Canadians are anxious about their economic future . . . I've not read a lot of commentators and editorialists stating that the No. 1 problem of Canada today is Senate ethics."
