Canadians are losing faith in public institutions while federal lobbying violations continue to be kept from public view, a senior Treasury Board official told the House of Commons ethics committee.Brian Gear, executive director at the Treasury Board Secretariat, acknowledged during a statutory review of the Lobbying Act that public confidence in government institutions has been eroding for years.“Confidence in public institutions has declined over time,” Gear told MPs. “Obviously, expectations of Canadians with respect to transparency have changed.”The comments came as MPs examined revelations that more than a dozen people found to have violated federal lobbying rules were never charged and were never publicly identified.“There are a lot of challenges in maintaining the public’s trust in institutions,” said Gear. “I think there are a lot of different factors that have led to that.”Conservative MP Gabriel Hardy asked whether Canadians trust public institutions more or less than they did in the past.“There are a lot of challenges in maintaining the public’s trust,” Gear replied.The committee’s review follows testimony from Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger on May 8, when she disclosed her office had identified numerous violations of the Lobbying Act that resulted in neither criminal charges nor public reports.“Files are sent to the RCMP,” Bélanger told MPs..Conservative MP Michael Barrett pressed the commissioner on the referrals.“You have reason to believe when you refer a matter to the RCMP that the Act has been broken?” Barrett asked.“Yes,” Bélanger replied.“And the test the RCMP would use is different than the test you would use?”“Yes.”Barrett then asked whether the public is allowed to see reports on those cases.“No,” Bélanger said.“Why not?”“Because the way the Act is arranged right now, I can’t make findings of breaches,” she replied.Bélanger told MPs she has referred 19 cases to the RCMP during her tenure.When asked how many of those referrals had been publicly reported, she answered: “None.”The commissioner said some of the cases involved former designated public office holders who were prohibited from lobbying under a five-year restriction but lobbied anyway.“Some were former designated public office holders who should not have been lobbying because they were subject to a five-year restriction and they lobbied,” said Bélanger.She did not identify any of the individuals involved.The ethics committee also heard there are currently about 9,000 registered lobbyists in Ottawa.The last successful prosecution under the Lobbying Act occurred in 2017, when Montréal executive Hervé Pouts was fined $9,000.Other convictions under the Act include former Conservative Party aide Andrew Skaling, who pleaded guilty to illegal lobbying in 2013 and was fined $7,500; former Stephen Harper adviser Bruce Carson, who was convicted in 2016 and fined $45,000; and former Liberal Party national director James Carroll, who was convicted in 2016 and fined $20,000.
