Ontario PCs Announce Accountability and Ethics Action Plan
The Ontario PCs are announcing an Accountability and Ethics Action Plan consisting of eight new measures that will promote fairness in politics and government, which is in keeping with the principle that good governance should make life better for everyone and not for the governing political party (more details can be found here).
‘What we are looking for is the absence of advantages to one side. There has been a trend in Ontario of the Liberal Party feathering its own nest for re-election, helping out personal connections, and making secret negotiations – and it is unfair,” said Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown.
The Ontario PCs believe previous reforms that have been passed in parliament in response to Liberal cash-for-access activities and various scandals do not go far enough. Our Accountability and Ethics Action Plan is designed to meet the standard of the public’s expectations to have good governance in the Ontario government.
Some of the important challenges this Action Plan sets out to fix include:
- The current Premier must ensure her Cabinet Ministers, MPPs and top Ministerial staff serve the people of Ontario at all times, and not the treasury of the Liberal party or personal connections with government favours and contracts
- The Liberal Government should not treat the vast sums of public money available to run expensive government advertising which the Auditor General has warned could be partisan
- Furthermore, the Auditor General’s oversight of government advertising must be restored to uphold fairness in the advertising process. We believe that officers of parliament must consistently have the legal authority, the tools, and the respect they require to do their jobs
- Loopholes that give an unfair advantage to a select few must be closed
“This Liberal government’s internal accountability measures are not what they should be, and they’ve become caught up in making deals and dodging public scrutiny rather than looking out for the best interests of Ontario families and workers,” added Brown.
- The Accountability and Ethics Action Plan will be debated and voted on as an opposition day motion on Tuesday, May 9 beginning at approximately 4:00pm.
- Ontario PC Leader Brown will hold an availability to discuss the measures at 10 a.m. at Queen’s Park on May 9.