{"id":16451,"date":"2015-04-07T12:33:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T16:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/?p=16451"},"modified":"2018-01-29T23:08:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T04:08:41","slug":"quebec-needs-a-sunshine-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/quebec-needs-a-sunshine-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec needs a sunshine law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Laval independent councillor Pierre Anthian questioned why bureaucrats deemed his research expense claims invalid, he raised two important issues about how Quebec democracy functions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To whom can a politician appeal a bureaucratic decision when the executive committee those public servants report to are all members of an opposing party?<\/li>\n<li>What role did the executive committee have in deeming Anthian\u2019s expense claims invalid?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other Laval politicians seem to think that Anthian has shared his expense claims with journalists. He has not. Nor has he made them public on a website or anywhere else.<\/p>\n<p>That raises an important third question. Why not?<\/p>\n<p>Should any politicians\u2019 expense claims remain private?<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think so. Every time I do a story about expense claims and budgets, I\u2019m reminded of three years working as a public servant for the State of Florida during the 1980s. Florida has a very strong public access law called the Sunshine Law.<\/p>\n<p>In Florida, politicians and bureaucrats always recognize that the public is the final arbiter of their choices. Meetings are public. Expenses are public. All disputes are resolved publicly.<\/p>\n<p>As described on the <a href=\"http:\/\/myfloridalegal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website of Florida\u2019s Attorney General<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This law provides that any records made or received by any public agency in the course of its official business are available for inspection [by the public], unless specifically exempted by the Florida Legislature. Over the years, the definition of what constitutes \u201cpublic records\u201d has come to include not just traditional written documents such as papers, maps and books, but also tapes, photographs, film, sound recordings and records stored in computers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When I worked in Florida\u2019s Canadian office, the Sunshine Law required me to justify every project planned next to a precise budget on an annual basis.<\/p>\n<p>When politicians wanted to cut the budget, they slashed specific projects.<\/p>\n<p>My salary was private, but it was combined with the salary of other civil servants so that politicians could see how much the Toronto office cost to run. Any member of the public could look at those lists and understand how much their local library, pools, arenas or school cost to run.<\/p>\n<p>If a politician came to Canada, all the details of their trips were public. How much did they spend on meals? Who did they meet with and where was the meeting held?<\/p>\n<p>If Quebec offered even a quarter of that clarity in its budget, the Charbonneau Commission might not have been needed. Politicians wouldn\u2019t be able to divide the expenditures of a single function into two or three different budget lines to hide the full cost.<\/p>\n<p>Cash hidden in socks might still happen, but the public might be able to guess from whom the cash came.<\/p>\n<p>Quebec needs to operate under a similar philosophy. We need a Sunshine Law.<\/p>\n<p>Until that happens, politicians in Laval and everywhere else will have to wonder whether they\u2019re being treated fairly.<\/p>\n<p>Anthian\u2019s case has all the Laval politicians questioning each other about their expenses. They are asking each other whether they made claims for certain items and whether those claims are valid. The rules are so complicated that Laval politicians say they\u2019ve had multiple training sessions to understand how to apply them.<\/p>\n<p>Yet they still make claims that have been refused.<\/p>\n<p>On one hand, it\u2019s reassuring to read that politicians other than Anthian have had their expense claims refused. On the other, it\u2019s worrying to learn that bureaucrats are the final arbiters about which politicians get reimbursed and how much they receive.<\/p>\n<p>Laval bureaucrats have not yet explained their decision to deny Anthian\u2019s claims in detail. They simply cite the rules they are using to judge all expenses, which are briefly outlined in a <a href=\"http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/guide_remboursement_depenses_recherche.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">14-page research guide<\/a>. That guide says things like \u201call research expenses clamed must respond to a real and useful need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, much is left to interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>Anthian now believes that the only way he\u2019ll get a fair hearing will be in front of a judge in a court of law. He\u2019s speaking with lawyers to see whether he has a case, but the costs of such an action may prevent him from following that route.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, he continues to ask questions about political expenses and privacy. Why does the mayor of Laval need one car, let alone two? Why are citizens paying for politicians\u2019 meals during a fundraiser? Why do budgetary discussions have to be made in private by the executive committee instead of publicly during city council?<\/p>\n<p>Why doesn\u2019t Quebec have a Sunshine Law?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Laval independent councillor Pierre Anthian questioned why bureaucrats deemed his research expense claims invalid, he raised two important issues about how Quebec democracy functions. To whom can a politician appeal a bureaucratic decision when the executive committee those public servants report to are all members of an opposing party? What role did the executive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20,10,29],"tags":[136,743,694],"class_list":["post-16451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hundredmilecircle","category-politics-that-matter","category-quebec","tag-laval","tag-quebec","tag-sunshine-law","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-4hl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16404,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/laval-refuses-anthian-expenses\/","url_meta":{"origin":16451,"position":0},"title":"Laval bureaucrats refuse Anthian expenses","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"March 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Laval-des-rapides councillor Pierre Anthian had another meeting with legal department manager Patrice F. Guay recently. Guay and Sylvain\u00a0Gouin, who became Laval\u2019s financial services manager and city municipal treasurer in January, had bad news. Laval will not pay $12,000 of $14,000 Anthian claimed in research and support expenses since he became\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Island Report&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16957,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/courts-force-laval-to-pay-anthian\/","url_meta":{"origin":16451,"position":1},"title":"Courts force Laval to pay Anthian","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"March 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Laval paid $3,334.61 to Laval-des-Rapides councillor Pierre Anthian on January 22. The figure covered reimbursements for research expenses costs originally denied by the city and reported on in the Suburban last April. This is a great relief after a year of sacrifices for my family and wrestling with the City,\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hundred Mile Circle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16177,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/intelligent-parking\/","url_meta":{"origin":16451,"position":2},"title":"Laval needs intelligent parking says Anthian","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Laval independent city councillor Pierre Anthian plans to hold a public consultation about intelligent parking on Tuesday, February 24 at 7 p.m. It will take place at the Ch\u00e2teau Royal, 3500, boulevard du Souvenir, right next to City Hall. Intelligent parking enables citizens to leave their cars parked on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hundred Mile Circle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16964,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/anthian-proposes-montreal-field-trip\/","url_meta":{"origin":16451,"position":3},"title":"Anthian proposes Montreal Field Trip","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"With files from Robert Frank During the council meeting last night (January 12), Pierre Anthian, the municipal councillor of Laval-des-Rapides made a motion that Laval city councillors visit their counterparts in Montreal to learn about democracy. We look exactly the same as we did in the days of Vaillancourt,\u201d said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hundred Mile Circle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16962,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/trottier-reserves-name-for-new-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":16451,"position":4},"title":"Trottier reserves name for new party","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"January 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Independent Laval councillors Michel Trottier and Pierre Anthian are cooperating to create a new political party in time for the next elections in November 2017. \u201cIf we do nothing, we\u2019re going to arrive in 2017 with only one party as we were at the time of Vaillancourt,\u201d said Trottier. \u201cI\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hundred Mile Circle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15838,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/laval-flood-plain\/","url_meta":{"origin":16451,"position":5},"title":"Flood zone law to be set soon","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Marc Demers announced the process Laval will use to set its flood zones at the last council meeting on November 3. In the audience were several people representing 700 people whose homes lie within the official flood plain if changes aren\u2019t made. They waited four hours to hear about more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hundred Mile Circle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welcome-Scan.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16451"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18181,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451\/revisions\/18181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}