OTTAWA — The Conservative government is making several new ethics rules effective immediately, including a five-year ban on lobbying by former cabinet ministers, political aides and public servants.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised during the campaign to make his proposed Federal Accountability Act his first order of business in the new Parliament, but several of the intended measures were announced yesterday through updates to two key rule books for cabinet ministers and senior political and public-service staff.
The new books lay out expectations for the new cabinet ministers and warn that any minister who speaks out against a cabinet decision must resign.
Even the ministers' private lives must be above reproach, according to the introductory message from Mr. Harper in the new guidebook for ministers.
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"Both the performance of your official duties and the arrangement of your private affairs should bear the closest public scrutiny," he writes.
The new rules indicate Mr. Harper will not tolerate public dissent from his ministers. "Ministers cannot dissociate themselves from or repudiate the decisions of their cabinet colleagues unless they resign from cabinet."
The second document, which is a revised edition of the Conflict of Interest and Post-Employment Code for Public Office Holders, includes elements of the Conservative Party's ethics platform.
The head of Mr. Harper's transition team, Derek Burney, told reporters the government is immediately bringing in all parts of the accountability package that do not require legislation.
For instance, the rule that bans former ministers and senior public servants from lobbying their former departments for one year has been extended to five years on lobbying any department.
The new rules were put in place as the Conservatives faced accusations of questionable ethics for appointing unelected party organizer Michel Fortier as Public Works Minister, inviting David Emerson to leave the Liberals and join the Conservative cabinet and for naming Gordon O'Connor, who was a military lobbyist until June of 2004, as Defence Minister.
"Clearly, this is an area of concern, and one that we will be watching very carefully," Liberal MP Bill Graham said of Mr. O'Connor's appointment.
Mr. Harper later defended Mr. O'Connor. "Having worked in an industry in the past does not constitute a conflict of interest in the present," he said.
Meanwhile, Liberal MP Maria Minna issued a news release calling for Mr. Emerson's resignation.
Gar Knutson, a junior cabinet minister in the federal Liberal government from 2002 to 2003, who now works as an Ottawa lobbyist for the law firm Bordner Ladner Gervais, predicts the new rule will have little impact on former ministers.
He noted that most of his job involves advising corporate clients about the process of decision making in Ottawa, a practice that can continue under the new system.
Those who will be most affected, he said, will be former public servants who join lobby firms looking to secure procurement contracts.
The Conservatives also announced a few changes to federal departments. The large Human Resources Department, which the previous Liberal government had split in two, will be put back together. The planned division of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is now officially terminated. Finally, the infrastructure portfolio is now part of the Transportation Department.
