Conflict of interest commissioner, MLAs have conflicting views on transparency

There is virtually no record-keeping of the actions of the province's conflict of interest commissioner, an issue MLAs from all three parties say needs to be revisited.

Retired justice Merlin Nunn, the commissioner for the last 19 years, appeared before the legislature's human resources committee on Tuesday to discuss his role. Aside from reviewing complaints and signing off each year on MLAs' declaration statements, Nunn also counsels politicians and members of the public service on whether they are in a conflict, or could become caught in one.

While calls from politicians have decreased, something he attributed to increased awareness and advisement, Nunn said he's seeing an increase in calls for advice from members of the public service. Often, he said, it's because people want to do similar consulting work on their own time.

"I have to decide whether or not that that is a conflict of interest and generally those type of situations are, so they have to be very careful."

Taking a more measured approach

While he's aware his counterparts across the country tend to take a strict approach to interpreting their rules, Nunn said he prefers an approach focused on trying to help people find a way to do what they want to do, while staying within the rules.

That's important, he said, because jobs are at a premium in the province and they often don't pay that well.

"I think that, for Nova Scotia, that's the proper way to go about it."

But for all of the calls and other communicating Nunn does as part of his job, he told the committee there is no formal log of his work. He also doesn't follow up on advice or rulings, mainly because he believes his directions are followed.

Questioning the value of public reporting

And while the role, in Nunn's opinion, is "absolutely vital to a democratic society," he questioned how much of it needs to be public.

Rulings by Nunn are only made public if an individual involved chooses to release the information. In other instances, because he's being asked for advice, Nunn said he believes it reasonable for that to remain private. He questioned the value of filing an annual activityreport if it only has generic information.

"It doesn't tell anything other than how busy is the person. How can I report that I've been on the telephone so many times and for such a long time that even my wife is mad at me? I don't subscribe to the notion that this is all part of an open government," he said.

"I'm not a fan of transparency in this particular situation. You're giving advice to people in their jobs and it's all very private."

Time to revisit the job description

Committee members said the province has benefited from Nunn's experience and professional judgment, although they agreed the job description should be revisited in the future to consider regular reporting.

"I think that not having that is a real injustice to our democracy and to our system," said Tory MLA Eddie Orrell. His party has a bill before the House that would make the commissioner an officer of the legislature and require an annual report be tabled in the House.

New Democrat MLA Marian Mancini said the office's function seems "archaic." Like Orrell, she's troubled by the lack of follow-up.

Mancini said she thinks staffing levels need to be revisited and more can be done for transparency. At a minimum, decisions should be made available for the public, she said.

"The conflict issues are so much more complicated today, just even given by the way we can communicate, that I think we need to get a little more up to speed."