Mandryk: MLA’s ethics issues should extend to wide-sweeping reforms

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As pathetic as Saskatchewan’s woeful conflict of interest laws truly are, the changes this province needs extend well beyond whatever happened at former MLA Gary Grewal’s motels.

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Sure, Grewal’s mess demonstrates there are big conflict-of-interest act problems extending well beyond declaring the occasional trinkets cabinet ministers haul back from their often-excessive travel.

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But the real problem may be that some of these past costly and unnecessary trips, suspiciously, seemed more about setting up politicians for their political after lives than about dealing with problems of the day.

Similarly, closing a few loopholes — which the Saskatchewan Party government vowed to do back in 2019, but really hasn’t — isn’t enough, either.

We have to take a broader view. What’s needed is a complete overhaul of all ethics-related disclosures before, during and after someone becomes an MLA, especially after they’re appointed to cabinet.

We need higher standards for those in cabinet who make decisions behind the closed door of executive council meetings. Surely the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) — an issue of a decade ago — has taught us that.

Conflict declarations for all MLAs need to go much deeper — not only disclosing family connections, but also business relationships, business partners, employers and associates.

However, doing all of this still might not have warded off every allegation involving former economy minister Bill Boyd’s obvious conflicts with the GTH land purchases. Nor would it have likely addressed the still-unresolved issues of Grewal’s motel business with Social Services.

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And tinkering with the conflict-of-interest law certainly doesn’t get us to the heart of the matter when it comes to what may be responsible for most of the the bad-faith decisions we see in our politics.

We simply have to get serious about putting limits on the size and source of political donations.

We must either no longer accept donations from businesses, unions, numbered companies, out-of-province donors and third-party funding sources — or at least put a severe cap on the size of these now limitless donations — so that integrity isn’t constantly being put into question.

But we must also regulate the political after-life.

The recent Shercom Industries tire recycling mess is screaming out the need to address the involvement of former MLAs in lobbying roles.

Whether the government hires them as lobbyists or others hire them to lobby our government, we need far more disclosure on what they are doing and the results.

Of course, we do have to start somewhere. And fixing our toothless conflict-of-interest laws so that former MLAs can be held to account for what they did in office is as good a place to start as any.

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“With the law as it stands, the Sask. Party government is basically saying that MLAs can break the law, line their pockets with public money, so long as they don’t run again,” NDP ethics and democracy critic Meara Conway said at a press conference Monday morning.

“No fines. No punishment. They just sail away into the sunset, having profiteered $730,000. It’s ridiculous.”

Even the NDP later acknowledged that not all of that $730,000 is “profiteering” and the difference between what would usually be charged to Social Services and the “inflated rates” of Grewal-involved properties was closer to $300,000.

Perhaps one of the side benefits of cleaning up this entire area would be the elimination of such political hyperbole.

That said, Conway and the NDP are absolutely right that the 31-year-old conflict-of-interest act doesn’t hold former members to account once they leave office, or even prescribe fines. (In Monday’s question period, Premier Scott Moe said he would ask the justice minster to update the 1993 act in the next couple of years.)

But Grewal’s issue is a mere raindrop in the bucket compared with the typhoon of limitless political donations and unchecked lobbying.

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And given the interconnection between all of the issues — conflicts of interest, political donations and lobbying — Moe’s update of conflict of interest rules should be a holistic approach to all ethics-related issues that tend to get MLAs in trouble.

The Grewal mess is just a small part of a much bigger, longstanding issue.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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