Justice Gomery wants to hear your views................

Commissioner Gomery Wants to Hear From You
An Invitation for Public Input

What should be done to improve accountability in the government of Canada? This is the question Mr. Justice Gomery has been asked to answer.

Canada's accountability infrastructure is complex and Justice Gomery wishes to focus on the mandate that was given to him by the government and on issues identified by the evidence heard in public hearings in Ottawa and Montreal. Accordingly, the focus is on the executive and its relations with Parliament. More specifically, Justice Gomery, in preparing his report, would welcome the views of Canadians on three themes: responsibility, accountability and transparency.

Justice Gomery has been asked to make recommendations on a number of accountability and transparency mechanisms including:

1. the respective responsibilities and accountabilities of ministers and public servants
2. whistleblowing legislation
3. Access to Information Act
4. the accountability mechanisms of crown corporations.

In addition, evidence at the public hearings raised a number of issues related to ministerial accountability, including:

* The extent to which we can still identify individuals, whether at the political and administrative levels, who are responsible, answerable and accountable for the development and management of the sponsorship initiatives or advertising activities or, more generally, of government programs.
* The extent to which Parliament was or should have been informed as the sponsorship/advertising initiatives took shape.
* The role Parliament played or should have played in the sponsorship/advertising initiatives.
* The role that career officials played or should have played in the sponsorship/advertising initiatives.
* The degree to which administrative and financial responsibility for delivering government initiatives should fall on career officials.
* Whether internal audit reports should be made public as they are prepared.

Commissioner Gomery Wants to Hear Your Views

The questions below address these issues. We ask Canadians to look to the future, to accountability mechanisms they would like to see introduced or strengthened and to the role of ministers, their members of Parliament and career officials in the management of government programs. In short, their views on Parliament, the operations of government, on responsibility, accountability, answerability and transparency. It should also be noted that Justice Gomery will not be addressing issues such as electoral reform for the House of Commons and Senate reforms. The responses received will be valuable input to Justice Gomery in formulating his final recommendations.

Canadians can send their views on any or all of these questions to the Commission by mail at: P.O. Box 1388, Station "B", Ottawa ON K1P 5R4 or via the Web site (www.gomery.ca).

Your responses will be retained by the Commission and will not be posted on the Web site. Input received will not be identified with any particular individual.