MPs want to review DM appointments

MPs studying government appointments want Prime Minister Paul Martin to publicly produce job descriptions and qualifications for hundreds of top senior service jobs, and are also calling for the Parliamentary review of mandarins such as deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers. The steps would represent a big departure from what the Martin government has in mind when it proposed to allow Parliament to review some of the thousands of Governor in Council appointments made by the federal Cabinet behind closed doors. It would also represent a major undertaking for the Privy Council Office and the rest of the federal bureaucracy which would have to come up with job descriptions for countless top-level jobs. The development is just the latest twist in the ongoing debate over how to implement Mr. Martin's pledge to end cronyism in government by allowing Parliamentary oversight of appointments. Last fall, Government House Leader Tony Valeri asked House committees to review which appointments relevant to their mandates should be subject to prior review. He didn't ask them anything about job descriptions. But some of the committees came back saying they want this part of the reform package. MPs on the Citizenship and Immigration Committee, for example, adopted a motion this month requiring the government to produce "skills and competence-related criteria" for all appointments related to their mandate. The criteria would have to be submitted to the committee for approval, after then made public. The government would have to provide background documents, such as resumes, on each nominee 60 days prior to the appointment. Meanwhile, at least one committee is pushing to review the appointments of deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers. This recommendation was made by the House Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee even though the government has made it clear these mandarin jobs are off the table. Marc Roy, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office, said the review of DMs or ADMs is not on. "They don't fall within the purview of Parliamentary review," he said. Government appointments, which are made by the Governor in Council, are the strict prerogative of the federal Cabinet and any Parliamentary recommendation isn't binding. This was seen last week when the Prime Minister moved ahead with the appointment of Glen Murray as chairman of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy against the wishes of the House Environment and Sustainable Development Committee. The idea of job descriptions was well-received last week when the NDP's Ed Broadbent proposed it at a round-table discussion before the Procedure and House Affairs Committee--the committee charged with overseeing the review process and recommend any changes to the Standing Orders of the House. "I wanted to make sure that every Governor in Council appointment has a job description that's publicly available that the person named shown how they meet criteria," said Mr. Broadbent. Committee members Judi Longfield from the Liberals and Ken Epp from the Conservatives spoke out in favour of the idea. Many questions remain unanswered about the process, such as whether Parliament would have a say in the drafting of the job descriptions. The Procedure and House Affairs Committee, chaired by Liberal MP Don Boudria, plans to table its report later this spring. Reform of the appointment process has progressed in fits and starts since Prime Minister Martin took power on Dec. 12, 2003. The government still doesn't have a permanent process to review Supreme Court justices, prompting outgoing Justice Jack Major to call on Mr. Martin to stop "dithering" and settle on a system now. "If I were advising the Prime Minister, I'd say, 'Have a system. Let people criticize it, but have it,'" Justice Major told The Globe and Mail this month. When the government appointed Madam Justice Rosalie Abella and Madam Justice Louise Charron last August, it fell onto Justice Minister Irwin Cotler to appear before a Parliamentary Committee to defend the appointments. The Conservative opposition argued the Justice should have been available for questioning themselves, as is done for confirmation hearings in the U.S. The government also took some heat after Revenue Canada Minister John McCallum appointed Gordon Feeney as chair of Canada Post without Parliamentary review last fall. This came after Treasury Board President Reg Alcock, in response to a number of Crown Corporations involved in the ads and sponsorship scandal, such as VIA Rail and Canada Post, had brought in interim measures for Crown Corporations appointments in March 2004 requiring Parliamentary review. Mr. Alcock has since tabled new rules in Parliament on Feb. 17 for the appointment of chief executive officers, directors and chairpersons of Crown corporations. It binds the government to produce selection criteria for these positions and make them public. The government is also supposed to develop a central website to solicit potential candidates for director and chair positions, and work with Parliamentary committees to ensure "a workable appointment review process that will not unduly delay necessary appointments." There is already evidence that the new reforms aren't going over very well inside the bureaucracy. The Canadian Press obtained under the Access to Information Act a study showing that Crown corporations and federal agencies are worried the increased oversight will hinder their recruitment process. "It is feared that these changes could inhibit the ability to recruit from the private sector, especially for the office of the CEO," says the July 2004 study, prepared for the Finance Department and which includes interviews with officials from the Bank of Canada, Export Development Canada, and the Canadian Wheat Board, among other Crown corporations. "Candidates for CEO may not wish to have their candidacy in the public domain until their appointment has been approved. This could place their relations with their existing employers at risk if their appointment is vetoed by a standing committee of Parliament," adds the study dug up by CP reporter Dean Beeby. francoli@hilltimes.com The Hill Times All the government appointments fit to print On March 21, Minister of National Revenue John McCallum appointed Connie Roveto as chair of the Canada Revenue Agency's Board of Management. On March 18, Prime Minister Paul Martin appointed Glen Murray as chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. On March 16, Minister of Canadian Hertiage and Minister responsible for Status of Women appointed Burton G.S. Glendenning as a part-time member of the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, Mary E. Hofstetter as a part-time member of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of Nature and Diane Juster as a part-time member of the National Arts Centre Board of Trustees. On March 11, the federal cabinet appointed Connie Ida Roveto to be chair of the Board of Management of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, in the place of Michael L. Turcotte, whose term has expired and Philippe Rabot to be Commissioner of Review Tribunals for a term of five years. On March 11, the federal cabinet appointed the following to chair the Boards of Referees: Bill Seen Ting Yuen, Paul Mulangu, and Robert Besner to be chairs for the British Columbia Regional Division (Lower Mainland); Margaret Dawn Martin and Phillip Nevil Davies for the District of Terrace, B.C.; Tyleen Kaylei Underwood for the District of Nelson, B.C.; and Susan Lynne Rucastle for the District of Kelowna, B.C.; Barbara Lynne Samson to be chairperson of the Boards of Referees for the Saskatchewan Regional Division (District of Saskatoon); Joanne Beverley Purvis for the Manitoba Regional Division (District of Winnipeg); Antonella Maria Bifano for the Ontario Regional Division (District of Hamilton); Lise Fontaine for the District of Cornwall, Ont; Michel Coulanges for the Quebec Regional Division (Montreal); William Jean-Pierre White and Francine LeBlanc for the District of Maurice, Que.; Denis Hébert for the District of Centre du Québec; Wyman Benjamin and Terry Saleh for the Nova Scotia Regional Division (Halifax). On March 11, the federal cabinet reappointed Denis Arvanitakis to be a full-time member of the Immigration and Refugee Board (Montreal Regional office) and Sherry D. Wiebe to the Vancouver Regional Office. On March 11, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Andy Mitchell appointed R. Claude Ménard as a director of the Board of Directors of Farm Credit Canada. On March 11, the federal Cabinet reappointed Anil Wirasekara and Mary E. Martin to be directors of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. On March 11, the federal Cabinet appointed Burton G.S. Glendenning to be a member of the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board. On March 11, the federal Cabinet appointed Diane Juster to be a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Arts Centre Corporation. On March 11, Minister of Canadian Heritage Liza Frulla appointed Mary E. Hofstetter as a trustee of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum of Nature and reappointed David Thauberger to be a member of the Canada Council for the Arts. On March 11, the federal Cabinet appointed Patrick J. Heinke to be a full-time member of the Canada Industrial Relations Board. On March 11, the federal Cabinet reappointed John M. Moreau to be a part-time member of the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal. On March 11, the federal Cabinet reappointed the following people to be members of the Review Tribunal: Glen Walden Picco for the region of Marystown, Lily Alice Knight to be a member for the region of Toronto, William George Jamieson for the region of London, Arlene Anne-Marie Iantomasi for the region of Hamilton and Lynda Ruth O'Connor for the region of Calgary. On March 11, the federal cabinet reappointed Anthony E. Boardman to be a member of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. On March 11, the federal Cabinet reappointed Mohindar Singh to be a member of the National Advisory Council on Aging. On March 11, the federal Cabinet reappointed the following people as governors at the Council of the Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission: James P. LeBlanc, representing the Government of Nova Scotia; Dan T. Clarke to represent the Government of Alberta; and Bill Chedore representing workers. On March 11, the federal Cabinet appointed Leonard Blumenthal and Anne M. Lavack to be directors of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. On March 11, the federal Cabinet appointed the following people to be a member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada: Louis Callaghan, as a representative of the Province of Prince Edward; Jean-Claude Marsan as a representative of the Province of Quebec and Robert Bothwell as a representative of the Province of Ontario. On March 11, the federal Cabinet reappointed Paul Groarke to be a full-time member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. --Compiled by Bea Vongdouangchanh

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MPs want to review DM appointments

House committees want selection criteria for senior public service jobs to be made public

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