Opposition MPs are trying to force the so-called "Tories' novelty-cheque" scandal issue in two House committees, have sent 60 individual complaints to the ethics commissioner, are trying to get the auditor general to investigate, and are looking into filing complaints with Treasury Board, the Public Service Commission and Elections Canada.

Liberal MP Wayne Easter (Malpeque, P.E.I.) said his party has filed 60 complaints against 60 individual Conservative MPs to Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson. He said made the party filed complaints against 42 per cent of the Conservative caucus, including 10 Cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.).

The issue broke into the news two weeks ago after news reports in Nova Scotia carried a picture of Conservative MP Gerald Keddy (South Shore-St. Margaret's, N.S.) giving away a "prop cheque" of $302,620 with the Conservative Party of Canada logo on it at a public event on Sept. 19 for a local rink. After this, the federal Liberals dug up and publicly released 181 similar pictures of Conservative MPs and Cabinet ministers in which the prop cheques either carried the party logo or were signed by either individual MPs, Cabinet ministers or the Prime Minister.

After the story made national headlines, the Prime Minister's Office issued a memo to Conservative MPs reminding them "that tax-funded projects and grants must be announced as Government initiatives, not Conservative Party initiatives."

Last week during Question Period, Mr. Harper said using the partisan logo on government announcements is "not correct."

"I said clearly last week and the government said very clearly when we heard of this abuse of a partisan logo on a government announcement is not correct. That is why of course we endeavour not to do that," said Mr. Harper.

Ms. Dawson's office said they had received 50 individual complaints last Friday and she said she will start the investigation when all the requests have arrived. Her office is sending out letters to the individuals being complained about. They have 30 days to respond and after that Ms. Dawson's office has 15 days to make a decision on whether to launch investigations or not, she may also decide to group the complaints into one investigation.

Although she would not speak about investigations she has yet to launch, Ms. Dawson warned MPs that while ethics is part of her title, it is nowhere to be found the legislation she monitors and enforces.

"It's quite unclear as to the extent to which my mandate extends into ethical issues that are not expressly referred to in either the code or the act. And in fact, one would wonder whether it extends there at all," Ms. Dawson told the House Ethics Committee last week.

Mr. Easter said the MPs and Cabinet ministers that he complained about are presenting prop cheques that either have a Conservative logo on them or the signature of MPs, Minister or Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself.

In the letters Mr. Easter cited the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons, which requires MPs "to fulfill their public duties with honesty and uphold the highest standards so as to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interests, and maintain and enhance public confidence and trust in the integrity of each MP and in the House of Commons." He argued that it is "not honest" for any of the MPs to suggest, by placing their own name or signature on a cheque, that this money in any way comes from him or her personally (or Mr. Harper or another Minister personally). He listed other breaches for Cabinet ministers, who fall under the Conflict of Interest Act as well.

"There's about 60 complaints, there's an additional five Conservative members that we found ... that are using these announcements for purely partisan purposes, these are taxpayers of Canada money and for the Conservatives to use announcements in such a way goes against everything that governments in Canada stood for since we became a country," said Mr. Easter, who also said he "has sources" and is "pretty confident" that the Conservative Resource Group has arranged some of the announcements.

OLO researcher Chris Swail said that while the Liberals wait for Ms. Dawson's findings, they are looking into other avenues to complain, including Elections Canada, the Public Service Commission, Treasury Board and other House committees.

Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay (Willowdale, Ont.) recently made a complaint to the Treasury Board Secretariat about the stimulus package advertising campaign being in violation of Treasury Board guidelines by being too partisan.

House Ethics Committee chair Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Ont.) said it will be difficult to find any breaches as the prop cheques are not legal tender.

"It's certainly a political stunt, probably isn't in good taste, in good form, but I doubt very much that it's a breach," Mr. Szabo told The Hill Times.

"I don't think it's unethical conduct, on top of that there is no provision in the Conflict of Interest Act that would address what happened. It may fall under the guidelines for ministers, ... which lay out ethical conduct, [but] the person to whom people are responsible for those Public Office Holders is the prime minister and the prime minister will determine whether they were ethical or not," said Mr. Szabo.

On Monday Oct. 26, the Public Accounts Committee will be looking into a motion from Liberal MP Derek Lee (Scarborough-Rouge River, Ont.) to ask Auditor General Sheila Fraser to look into the issue of government members' compliance to the Treasury Board's Federal Identity Program, which are the set of rules the government needs to follow to identify the Government of Canada "identity." Government of Canada signage, such as the prop cheques, needs to be identified in a consistent manner so as to have an identifiable "brand" for the federal government, according to the program.

"The lineage here is the apparent expansion of the communications envelope to include Members of Parliament of the governing party, Conservative party logos and associating those things with the Government of Canada activities. It looks partisan, it probably goes beyond the rules, you have some potential degree of what I would call 'passing off,' in other words, passing off a payment of the government of Canada to a municipality for example or to a private organization as a cheque coming from the Conservative party or from the Member of Parliament," said Mr. Lee.

Bloc MP Meili Faille (Vandreuil-Soulanges, Que.), a member of the Public Accounts Committee, said she thinks her party will support the motion and might consider amending it to have the committee look at the issue as well. Counting the Liberal chair, the committee has an opposition majority.

"At the present time I feel that the Conservatives have crossed a line that they shouldn't have crossed it and that public money should be announced as public funds and announced in a way that is non-partisan and the whole program in the way that it's set up is not an accident. Fifty-five MPs used that system so we have to investigate what the system is and how it works and make a judgment then when we're done with our studying," said Ms. Faille.

Conservative MP Andrew Saxton (North Vancouver, B.C.), Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury Board president, said it's a "non-issue" and the Public Accounts Committee shouldn't be looking into it because it focuses on reviewing auditor general.

"It's strictly an issue of: is it not a legal tender? It's not a real cheque, it's just a prop that's being used at these announcements so as far as I'm concerned it's a non-issue but I understand that the opposition asked the ethics commissioner to look into it," said Mr. Saxton.

Committee chair and Liberal MP Shawn Murphy (Charlottetown, P.E.I.) said that hasn't been brought up for the committee to look at it and right now the committee schedule is already booked for the coming three weeks.

Last Thursday, the Bloc MP Carole Freeman (Châteauguay-Saint Constant, Que.) motion to have Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee study the cheque issue was first modified by NDP and Conservative committee members and then defeated when Conservative Members voted against it and Liberal chair, Mr. Szabo broke the vote against it, because it was too vague and too early, given that the commissioner hasn't concluded her investigation. MPs could bring up a similar motion later on, said Mr. Szabo but he told The Hill Times that the committee, which can only look into the behaviour of Public Office Holders (Cabinet Ministers, their staff and senior bureaucrats) cannot command the attendance of Ministers or even MPs so it could be a futile pursuit.

cmunster@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times