441-00832 (Democratic process)

In Canada’s system of responsible government, Ministers, who are part of the executive, are accountable to the elected legislature, the House of Commons. It is the members of the House who have the responsibility to hold the Government to account. Those members are individually accountable to Canadians through elections.

To support them in their responsibility to hold the Government to account, parliamentarians benefit from a number of sources of independent advice, in particular from Agents of Parliament. These Agents support both the House of Commons and the Senate in their accountability and scrutiny functions by carrying out independent oversight responsibilities assigned to them by statute. They are independent officers responsible directly to Parliament and independent from the Government. They include:

• the Auditor General verifies the accounting methods and accuracy of the financial statements of the government, and determines whether public funds were used efficiently and for the purposes intended by Parliament;
• the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner provides confidential advice to the Prime Minister and to public office holders on all matters pertaining to the implementation of the Conflict of Interest Act, and may, at the request of a parliamentarian or on their own initiative, investigate any alleged breach of the Act by a public office holder;
• the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada conducts investigations where there is reason to believe that it is necessary in order to ensure compliance with the Lobbying Act, which aims to ensure transparency and the integrity of government decision-making;
• the Parliamentary Budget Officer is responsible for providing analysis to the Senate and the House of Commons on the government estimates and on matters of particular significance relating to the nation’s finances or economy, and may, upon request by parliamentarians, estimate the financial cost of any proposal that relates to matters within Parliament’s jurisdiction; and
• the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) is responsible for administering federal elections and referendums in Canada as well as enforcement of the Canada Elections Act (CEA). The CEO appears regularly before parliamentary committees, particularly the House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, on all matters relating to elections and political financing, and issues reports following each general election with recommendations to improve the administration of elections.

Ultimately, all members of the House of Commons are accountable to the public through free and fair elections. Federal elections in Canada are governed by a set of laws and procedures administered by Elections Canada designed to allow qualified electors to have an equal say in the selection of representatives in the House of Commons. Electoral integrity is achieved by ensuring that all electoral participants adhere to the rules designed to safeguard voter participation, and by uncovering and applying sanctions to practices that interfere with it.

Elections Canada's Electoral Integrity Framework establishes fairness, independence, reliability, security, and transparency as guiding principles against which Elections Canada's programs and services can be measured and helps structure analysis and decision-making to support the consistent and rigorous application of the Canada Elections Act (CEA). Elections Canada also has administrative measures in place as part of its regulatory function to promote electoral integrity, consistent with the CEA and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These measures include education, instructions, guidelines, regulatory policies, compliance and enforcement, and recommendations to Parliament on ways to improve the administration of the electoral process. The most recent Electoral Integrity Global Report 2019-2021, an international index reporting on the quality of elections around the world, once again ranked Canada near the top with respect to electoral integrity.

This system of executive accountability to an elected legislature is a key feature of the Westminster form of government and is used in many countries as the principal mechanism to hold governments accountable.