October 29, 2004 — Le Protecteur du citoyen

The Protectrice du citoyen calls upon the government for more transparency during public consultations regarding Bill 61

Québec, October 29, 2004 – The Protectrice du citoyen, Pauline Champoux-Lesage, tabled today her recommendations regarding Bill 61, An Act respecting the Agence des partenariats public-privé du Québec. She mainly focused on the monitoring mechanisms over the said Agence and its subsidiaries, as well as ethical issues.

Ms. Champoux-Lesage noted that the Bill does not mention principles and values that the Agence, government departments and agencies must follow while implementing public-private partnership projects. She therefore recommended that these principles and values be included in the Bill in order to ensure citizens that principles of transparency, fairness, quality of services, accountability, and protection of public interest are observed.

She also suggested that the Bill should include processes, which would enforce these principles and values. For example, in order to ensure the transparency of public-private partnership projects, the Protectrice du citoyen suggested that these projects be accessible to the public for a specific period of time, either through a register or tabling before the National Assembly.

As for the lack of provisions regarding potential conflicts of interest in public-private partnership projects, the Protectrice du citoyen deems it necessary to include a legal obligation for government departments and agencies to adopt codes of ethics in order to avoid such problems. In this regard, she further suggests developing administrative policies or measures to create staff awareness.

Finally, as they exist today, the Agence and its subsidiaries are not considered public agencies under the aegis of the Protecteur du citoyen. The Protectrice du citoyen deems it vital to pursue her office’s monitoring role. The Protecteur du citoyen’s jurisdiction over the Agence and its subsidiaries must therefore be specified in the Bill, as in the case of the Agence nationale d’encadrement du secteur financier. The possibility of appealing to the Protecteur du citoyen is all the more important, since such public-private partnerships will extend to cover the delivery of services to citizens, which does fall within his jurisdiction.

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