R. whereas parliamentarians, especially from developing countries, can and should play a crucial role in this agenda, ensuring government accountability and effectiveness as well as providing a vital knowledge link with constituents, both aspects being important in ensuring a country's resilience to climate change;

R. whereas parliamentarians, especially from developing countries, can and should play a crucial role in this agenda, ensuring government accountability and effectiveness as well as providing a vital knowledge link with constituents, both aspects being important in ensuring a country’s resilience to climate change;

New Zealand's Royal Commission on the Electoral System sat for over a year before releasing a detailed report in which it defined the following criteria for testing both first past the post and other voting systems: fairness between political parties; effective representation of minority and special interest groups; effective Maori representation, the Maori being New Zealand's indigenous ethnic minority; political integration; representation of constituents; voter participation; effective government; effective parliament; effective parties; and legitimacy.

Main dimensions of good governance have been defined, for example by the World Bank in 1991, as accountability, government effectiveness, the lack of regulatory burden, the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, and control of corruption.

We use taxpayers' money to make the federal government more efficient. We do so in co-operation with the provinces when they want to co-operate, but since the Parti Quebecois came into office, no co-operation has been forthcoming on its part and, unfortunately, it failed to help make services more efficient in the province.

I am confident that the members of the Reform Party, and the Bloc Quebecois indeed, have I think an enormous interest and a vital interest, as we all do as parliamentarians, in openness in government and being able to access the documents, be they census records or any other kind of government documents that we need to have in order to be informed about the efficiency of the operation of government.