Ethics?
Given all that was happening on the international stage this past week it might seem churlish to note that Paul Martin, too, was not having the best of weeks. Canada's next Prime Minister insisted that there had been no conflicts of interest while he was Finance Minister while also owning, in a blind trust, one of Canada's most prestigious companies, Canada Steamship Lines. As former Prime Minister Joe Clark, and sitting member for Calgary-Centre pointed out in Question Period, it's one thing to recuse himself on a specific issue which may relate to CSL as Finance Minister, turning power temporarily over to a junior minister; but when he becomes leader of the country who will he turn Canada over to when CSL is mentioned in Cabinet?
Martin steadfastly said he has not broken any ethics in this regard in the past and that, as the person responsible for turning around an ailing company, CSL needed him. One wonders how the company has survived as Martin, presumably at work as Canada's Finance Minister from 1993-2002, was too busy to look after CSL's daily affairs which he was not supposed to have any dealings with anyway. As Clark puts it, Martin's placing of CSL in a blind trust came with a seeing eye dog.
Does the future prime minister want any credibility on this issue at all? If he does, he and his family must immediately divest themselves of all ownership in CSL. Perhaps they can buy Canada Savings Bonds. With the proceeds they'll earn the same 2.00% rate the rest of us are getting. After taxes, of course, that's probably about $1 per year for every $100 invested. To retire modestly on the income from CSBs -- $45,000 annually after tax income for example -- you'd only need $4.5 million in bonds. Just like the rest of us have, Mr Future Prime Minister.
It's yet another sad commentary on political life in Ottawa that this needs to be debated at all. After years and years of politicians entering the ring not to do public service but to profit from it - or at least not willing to risk anything - we should not be surprised that any time an ethics issue comes up our elected officials scramble to the telephone to see if umpire Howard Wilson, the Federal Ethics Commissioner, approves or not. Wilson, a career civil servant since 1964, has worked in many posts relating to industry, trade and commerce. Let's hope his judgment, culled from many years of experience dealing with big business and international diplomacy, can be relied upon to "make sure MPs are accountable to the rules outlined in the Conflict of Interest Code and the Parliamentary Code of Conduct". But please! no more press releases containing the phrase "I could find no evidence ...".
Cruel Compensation
And speaking of compensation for public service ... Pierre Trudeau, as Prime Minister in 1969, earned about $37,000 that year (this salary had more than tripled before he left office in 1984; he gave himself his first raise a few months after becoming Prime Minister). When the current PM retires next February, Jean Chrétien will earn a pension exceeding $140,000 annually, a substantial drop from the day-to-day salary he currently earns of $260,000.
Still, former Cabinet Minister André Ouellet (first elected to Parliament under Lester Pearson and last seen on The Hill as Foreign Minister, resigning in January, 1996) will be able to top up his pension from 30 years of public service thanks to his February, 1996 appointment as CEO of Canada Post. He currently earns about $500,000 a year at this job, which includes a 25% "performance pay" sweetener.
(If the Federal Ethics Commissioner were asked, would he declare Ouellet the ideal candidate from across Canada and that his appointment to this cushy job had nothing to do with paying off a long-term career on the Liberal front benches? Or reply "I could find no evidence ...". Then again, perhaps no one looked for any.)
Maybe Paul Martin should have looked to the public sector for a job when he resigned from Cabinet last June. He immediately lost his $64,000 merit bonus as a Minister. But no doubt he's making do, somehow, on a mere $135,000, as every backbencher must, in this, the second session of Canada's 37th and best-paid Parliament. The last pay raise, in 2001, raised the Prime Minister's salary by 42%. Paul Martin, with an eye on other ambitions, was the Finance Minister who effectively authorised his own future salary.
Both the current Prime Minister, and the future Prime Minister, have incomes placing them in the rarified earnings plateau of top 1% in the country. Tax experts agree that the tax brackets for these unfortunate citizens leads many of them to abandon Canada for the United States where taxes on high income folk is much lower.
We can only hope.
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