(Quebec) Quebec elected officials placed themselves in an apparent conflict of interest by voting for their own salary increase, says the Ethics Commissioner of the National Assembly, Ariane Mignolet.
She believes that it would have been preferable for an independent binding committee to be responsible for setting the remuneration of elected officials.
Members of the National Assembly voted for a $30,000 salary increase last June. Asked whether this could have generated the appearance of a conflict of interest, Ariane Mignolet responded in the affirmative.
The commissioner says that elected officials could have at least postponed the increase until after the next election.
“My first recommendation is that it is not the deputies (who vote on their salary), but as long as they have done so, it is certain that by adopting a measure which becomes enforceable in a future legislature , this obviously removes a good part of the perception of conflict of interest. When we talk about a next legislature, none of them are sure to return. There are some who will not show up again. There are some who will not be elected,” explained M.me Mignolet, Tuesday, on the sidelines of special consultations on his report which aims to tighten the criteria for conflicts of interest.
This report also recommends the establishment of an independent mechanism whose function would be to determine the working conditions of deputies. The commissioner had to wait four years after tabling the document to be heard by parliamentarians in the National Assembly.
The commissioner had already raised reservations about the fact that parliamentarians were debating their salaries last June. The solidarity deputy Vincent Marissal then asked Mme Mignolet if this situation placed elected officials in a conflict of interest. At that time, the commissioner indicated that she could not give an opinion on this specific question, because it concerned the 125 deputies of the National Assembly.
During the special consultations on Tuesday, Ariane Mignolet returned to this point by explaining that the code of ethics “is not designed to cause me to put the entire deputation in breach”.
Better supervision of social networks?
Ariane Mignolet also indicated that she wanted to look into the use of social networks by deputies.
“The code of ethics applies in the exercise of your office and allows the use of State goods and services for the exercise of your office, which excludes partisan activities,” she explained. Tuesday in front of elected officials.
Note that the report she presented does not specifically address social networks. Mme Mignolet indicated that they could be the subject of recommendations in his next report which will be tabled in about a year. “It’s a subject I’m looking into, but I’m not ready to draw any conclusions,” she said.
“We see that the closer we get to an electoral period, the more the content mixes and it is difficult to separate things,” maintains the commissioner.
According to her, a citizen who follows an elected official on Facebook, for example, may have difficulty knowing whether he is speaking as a representative of a constituency, a minister or even the leader of a political party.
“The Code does not currently provide specific provisions for social media, but it applies to all communications carried out in the exercise of the office of the MP, including online communications,” specifies the communications advisor at the office of the Ethics Commissioner, Anne-Sophie St-Gelais.
The commissioner also reiterated that she wants ethics training to become mandatory for elected officials. Ariane Mignolet deplores that the deputies of the National Assembly are not sufficiently aware and informed about the ethical issues concerning them.