Corrupt politicians will be looking over their shoulders as Carleton PhD candidate Christian Bordeleau’s anti-corruption protocol is implemented in municipalities across Quebec.
Bordeleau has developed a protocol that looks at 111 different criteria to find corruption in municipal governments, according to a Carleton press release.
The protocol examines the way governments are run and compares them, according to the criteria. These criteria address a wide variety of subjects, including the receipt of gifts — some municipalities rule that gifts valued up to $200 must be declared, while Bordeleau’s protocol calls for gifts up to $25.
Bordeleau’s IGO 9002 report on municipal governance was completed in the city of Blainville, Que. It examined the municipal government and identified areas where ethics could be improved, the press release stated.
“The pilot has been successful; now the protocol is fully operational. Another six cities are looking into it,” Bordeleau said.
The protocol is flexible and can be adjusted according to the size of the city and the province that it is used in, Bordeleau said.
When asked about bringing the project to Ontario, he said “the other provinces all have different legislature that we need to follow, so there is a little bit of adjustment that is needed.”
Bordeleau said his knowledge from his earlier work at the Universite de Montreal as well as many years of research contributed to the success of the protocol.
“A lot of knowledge from different areas of study was combined together to make this work,” he said.
Bordeleau said Carleton’s public affairs and policy management professors were “very supportive and receptive” to his ideas.
“I got a lot of advice and support from them,” he said.
He especially credited his thesis supervisor, Leslie Pal.
“I couldn’t have done it without [him].”
