PCO's Ministers

Backgrounder  

Conflict of Interest and Post-employment Code  for Public Office Holders 

On Thursday October 7, 2004, the Right Honourable Paul Martin tabled the revised Conflict of Interest and Post-employment Code for Public Office Holders (the Code) in the House of Commons.  The Honourable Jack Austin, Leader of the Government in the Senate, tabled the Code in the Senate later that day.  The revised Code is effective immediately. 

The Code was last re-issued on December 12, 2003.  These revisions are the first since Canada’s first independent Ethics Commissioner, Dr. Bernard Shapiro, assumed office in May 2004, and since Bill C-4, an Act to Amend the Parliament of Canada Act (Senate Ethics Officer and Ethics Commissioner) came into force.

The tabling of the revised Code conforms with sections 72.061 and 72.062 of the Parliament of Canada Act, which require the Prime Minister to establish “ethical principles, rules and obligations for public office holders” and to table any revisions to the Code in Parliament within 15 sitting days of their being established. 

The revisions serve to strengthen the Code, to reflect certain administrative practices of the Office of the Ethics Commissioner, and where appropriate, to harmonize its provisions with the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons, which came into force on October 4, 2004.  In addition, numerous housekeeping changes have been made to reflect the coming into force of Bill C-4 and the appointment of the new Ethics Commissioner. 

The substantive revisions include: 

•   a prohibition of personal solicitation that could place public office holders in a position of obligation incompatible with their public duties (reflecting the practice of the Office of the Ethics Commissioner); 

•    requiring trustees and managers of blind trusts and blind management agreements to report annually to the Ethics Commissioner in order to verify the nature and market value of the property held in trust or under a blind management agreement;

• expanded restrictions on post-employment conduct by former ministers, preventing former ministers from making representations to ministers who had been former Cabinet colleagues (reflecting the practice of the Office of the Ethics Commissioner);

• new provisions governing the acceptance of invitations to special events, such as sporting and cultural events;

•  the removal of the $200 threshold for the criteria governing the acceptability of gifts, hospitality and benefits;

• expanding the general provisions regarding gifts, hospitality and benefits to the spouses, common-law partners and dependent children of public office holders (consistent with the House Code).

The revised Code will be administered by the Ethics Commissioner pursuant to the provisions of the Parliament of Canada Act and the Code.

The publication entitled Governing Responsibly: A Guide for Ministers and Ministers of State has also been revised. The Guide has been subject to minor amendments to reflect the coming into force of the Act to Amend the Parliament of Canada Act (Senate Ethics Officer and Ethics Commissioner), the appointment of the Ethics Commissioner, and the revisions to the Code.

For copies of the Code, or for further information on the Code generally, contact the Office of the Ethics Commissioner
66 Slater Street, 22nd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1P 5H1

Media Contact: 
Micheline Rondeau-Parent   
(613) 996-3132

or visit the Commissioner's Website at:

www.strategis.ic.gc.ca/ethics

Copies of the Code and of the Guide may also be obtained at the PCO Website at:

www.pco-bcp.gc.ca