Former US Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis once said, "sunlight is the best disinfectant." Justice Brandeis eloquently suggested transparency is the only way to expose and clean up government.

This was aptly demonstrated on the federal stage over the last few years thanks in no small part to whistleblower Allan Cutler, Auditor General Shelia Fraser and Justice John Gomery. All of these people played a significant role in kicking open the closed doors of government to let the sun shine in.

With introduction of the federal Accountability Act, much pressure has been placed on federal politicians to not simply be seen as transparent, but to actually be transparent in their use of public tax dollars. Not surprisingly, this pressure at the federal level has trickled-down to provincial and municipal.

Alberta is the latest province to review and make recommendations on how elected officials act when they are in office. The Alberta Legislature's Select Special Conflicts of Interest Act Review Committee recently released their final report, and smartly made their first recommendation that "the government should introduce legislation to establish a lobbyist registry in Alberta."

While this is no magic bullet when it comes to transparency in government, it certainly would shed a little sunlight on an area of government that many deem shady.

If a lobbyist registry is adopted, Alberta will follow in the footsteps of the federal government, and the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia.

A lobbyist registry wasn't the only good suggestion to come out of the committee's final report. They also recommended extending the current cooling-off period for former ministers from six-months to one year. This "cooling-off period" prohibits former ministers from lobbying their former ministry. The report goes further to suggest that senior staff, deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers, the Official Opposition Leader's staff, and select board chairs also be subject to a "cooling-off period", with "appropriate adjustments in compensation to reflect such restrictions," (read: taxpayers get out your wallets).

A one-year "cooling-off period" isn't quite the potential five-year "cooling-off period" for former ministers, senior ministerial and staff, and senior public servants (although staff unfortunately have to be added to the list by a cabinet minister) as laid out in the federal Accountability Act, but it's a move in the right direction, and certainly should be applauded.

However, there are a couple of recommendations taxpayers should hope the government opts to reject. Recommendation 30 proposes a sunset clause on any investigation or prosecution of a former minister after two years have passed since they left office. Furthermore, recommendation 33 proposes the Ethics Commissioner destroy disclosure records for all former MLAs two years after they leave office.

As we saw with the recent federal Sponsorship scandal, it often takes years for impropriety to come to the surface. Putting arbitrary and such short limits on accountability is unacceptable.

Nonetheless, on balance, the multi-party Select Special Conflicts of Interest Act Review Committee did an admirable job putting forward recommendations to improve transparency and accountability to the business of government. Now the pressure shifts to the next premier to make these recommendations a reality.