“I think they are interested. It’s based on they were here right from the very beginning. They kind of self-selected, they wanted to build a real legislative budget officer of Canada,” Mr. Page told The Hill Times.
Those three individuals are Mostafa Askari, 63, currently an assistant PBO and director general of economic and fiscal analysis; Sahir Khan, 43, also assistant PBO and the office’s director general of expenditure and revenue analysis; and Chris Matier, 42, the senior director of economic and fiscal analysis.
Mr. Page’s five-year appointment will come to an end March 24, and he has said that he will not be asking the government to renew his term.
But Mr. Page’s reports have put him at loggerheads with the federal government and the process to find a new PBO appears to be behind schedule. Some say it will be difficult to find a new PBO, but Mr. Page says there are three stellar candidates sitting right in his office.
Anyone interested in the job will have the chance to apply once the Library of Parliament, which is responsible for filling the position, chooses an executive search firm and work gets underway. The Library closed bidding from interested firms last week.
When Mr. Page was chosen, the Library used international search firm Ray and Berndtson. Their picks were submitted to a search committee made up of top economist Don Drummond, then Public Service Commission head Maria Barrados, former NDP MP Bill Knight, and then Parliamentary librarian Bill Young.
This time around a similar selection committee will submit three names confidentially to government House Leader, Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.), and the government will make the final decision.
“These are three very, very, credible candidates. Could there be other people? Yes. Do we hope there’s other people? I think it’s always good for Parliament and for Canadians when there’s more competition. Will those people show up? We’ll see when the recruitment firm goes out, but again we’re still dealing with very weak legislation,” said Mr. Page.
The position was created under the Federal Accountability Act, and pays between $139,900 and $164,500. It is not a fully independent officer of Parliament, like the auditor general is. The budget office has a budget of $2.8-million and has a staff of 14.
Mr. Matier and Mr. Askari are responsible for the office’s economic forecasting. Mr. Khan is currently working on a report on the government’s shipbuilding procurement process, and has been responsible for the office’s costing work, such as on the F35 fighter jets and crime legislation, explained Mr. Page.
“It’s a very, very, small community in Ottawa that does budget work,” said Mr. Page.
“There’s not that many people around the system … that are willing to do that job,” he said.
Mr. Page and Mr. Askari met at Queen’s University in the early 1980s, when Mr. Page was his teaching assistant. They later worked together in government.
When Mr. Page was at Treasury Board Secretariat working on enhancing the department’s expenditure management system in the early 2000s, he recruited Mr. Khan from New York City where he was working at a private firm.
Before Mr. Page took the job as PBO he made sure that Mr. Askari and Mr. Khan would be joining him.
“I twisted their arms and said, ‘If I go, are you coming?’ and they said, ‘Yeah I’m coming.’ Then I said I would make sure that that was a condition of my employment, and it was,” he explained.
Mr. Matier “was something that fell from the sky from God,” said Mr. Page.
“He literally knocked on our door within the first few months of my appointment, and said ‘If there’s a spot for me I’d love to work here and help you build the office,”’ Mr. Page recalled.
The opposition parties and watchdog groups have raised the concern that the government would use Mr. Page’s departure as an opportunity to appoint someone who would be less outspoken.
Conservative MP Mike Wallace (Burlington, Ont.) who sits on the House Government Operations Committee said that the Liberals and NDP are trying to “politicize” the job hunt.
“It makes it less attractive to good candidates, regardless of your stripe, if you have one,” said Mr. Wallace.
He said that the hiring system is set up to avoid such issues.
“That’s why we have a search firm, why we have an independent group looking for people who are interested in the position,” he stated.
Mr. Page, 55, said that he is okay with the fact that this will be his last public service job, after 31 years of service.
But he said he is concerned that the PBO’s lack of independence compounds the difficulties for younger candidates in the middle of their careers, such as Mr. Matier and Mr. Khan, who will find it challenging to apply for what is essentially a public service career-ending job.
Tyler Sommers, the coordinator of government watchdog group Democracy Watch, said that the Parliamentary budget officer must be made independent before someone new is appointed.
“It would also change the appointment process to require approval of a majority of recognized party leaders in the House in order to approve the appointment. That would definitely make the process a bit better,” he said.
Democracy Watch would also like to see the position granted more powers, such as to order the release of information, and to have access to a quick appeals court in disputes with government departments.
Last week, the Speakers of both the House and the Senate became parties in the PBO-NDP Federal Court case that asks the court to clarify the PBO’s mandate. Mr. Page felt the suit was necessary after his office was unable to get detailed information from departments on how the government plans to enact spending cuts. The government argued that the PBO was overstepping its mandate in asking for the information.
“We don’t believe that the PBO is overstepping the bounds,” said Mr. Sommers.
The essential qualities of the next PBO are non-partisan, independence, “and that they are willing to essentially stick their neck out,” said Mr. Sommers.
“That’s really the most important role, is for them to be a thorough researcher who isn’t afraid of standing up against an institution that can be very intimidating,” he said.
While strong watchdogs can come from outside the public service “because they don’t need to worry about hurting anyone’s feelings” that’s not to say that someone from the public service can’t do the job, said Mr. Sommers.
Both the outspoken Mr. Page and the widely-discredited former public service integrity commissioner, Christiane Ouimet came from the public service.
“The worst thing, at the end of the day, that could happen is that an individual who isn’t as well qualified is selected for the position because of who they know, because of what their position is,” said Mr. Sommers.
The PBO was busy last week, with the release of two reports.
On Jan. 24 it released an examination of government spending during the first six months of the 2012-2013 fiscal year. It found that while the government promised to only make cuts to administration as part of the 2012 budget, most of the savings have come from frontline services so far.
“Decreased year-to-date expenditures are driven, in part, by lower public debt charges and reduced operating expenditures. … Notwithstanding the overall decrease in expenditures, spending on internal services (i.e. overhead costs) increased by eight per cent,” the PBO wrote.
It also released a report comparing Finance Canada’s long-term fiscal projections to its own on Jan. 23.
The report found that Finance and the PBO have very similar projections for Canada’s future real GDP growth. Between 2012 and 2016 the PBO predicts a growth rate of 2.4 per cent, while Finance Canada predicts a rate of 2.3 per cent. Between 2017 and 2030 that growth is predicted to be 1.6 per cent by both organizations, and at 1.8 per cent between 2031 and 2050. The two organizations’ projections for nominal GDP growth are also very similar, differing by less than half a percent until 2050.
“It is a good thing, a very good thing, and perhaps thanks to the auditor general, which encouraged the department of Finance to release their longer-term fiscal sustainability analysis,” said Mr. Page.
The similarities point to a flaw in the PBO’s relationship with Finance.
“For the past three years, we’ve been producing this analysis, and telling the Finance department, ‘You need to produce it.’ … We were criticized in our work as being academic,” said Mr. Page.
“Then they come out and they produce the exact same report as the PBO. The numbers are almost identical, the methodology is almost identical. I’m not whining right now, what I’m saying is we need to get to a better point,” he said.
In the coming months, the office will continue to be busy as the government releases and Parliament reviews key financial documents, like the forthcoming 2013 budget and the main estimates.
“You have to have somebody here,” said Mr. Page, who has explained that without a PBO in charge the office would have no one to speak publicly or to release its reports.
Mr. Wallace said that looking at past appointments, such as the auditor general’s, there is often a delay between the departure of an officer and the appointment of a new one.
“That’s normal so I’m not concerned about that, if there’s a short gap between the new person and the person who has the position presently,” he said.
Mr. Sommers said that the government shouldn’t appoint someone hastily just to meet the March deadline.
“If there is a slight delay I don’t think it’s the end of the world, it would be red flag and we would have to watch for the reasoning and to ensure that it isn’t put on the back burner, that filling the position isn’t ignored because again delay tactics are one way to ensure that the government can operate without oversight and accountability,” he said.
The government could chose to appoint an interim PBO, or to extend Mr. Page’s term until a successor is found. In the end, said Mr. Page, it’s not about him, it’s about the office.
“I don’t think the issue is a personality, do you want more of Kevin Page? That’s not the issue at all. To me, it always comes down to: do you want the kind of analysis that we produce?”
Cartwright honoured for outstanding federal public service work
An ambassador, adviser to the PM, and the woman behind the Federal Accountability Act, Susan Cartwright was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service of Canada last week for her 31 years of service.
“An effective public service is the backbone of good government, and you, Susan, are a shining example of just how good the public service can be,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) said at the award ceremony at Rideau Hall Jan. 22.
The outstanding service award was founded in 1966 and is the most prestigious commendation in the public service.
Ms. Cartwright spent much of her career in the department of Foreign Affairs. She wrote the foreign service exam on a dare, explained Mr. Harper.
She has served as Canada’s ambassador to Hungary, Slovenia and Algeria. Later she worked in Treasury Board Secretariat, where she drafted the Federal Accountability act, and in the Privy Council Office as the Prime Minister’s foreign and defence policy adviser and deputy secretary to Cabinet. As a PCO senior adviser, she led the legislative review of the Public Service Modernization Act. Her last post was as deputy minister of Fisheries and Oceans, which she retired from last spring.
“Susan Cartwright embodied the very best in public service, and she continues to inspire and to lead by example,” said Governor General David Johnston. Mr. Johnston met Ms. Cartwright when he was University of Waterloo president, and she was the university’s liaison with the deputy minister university champion program.
She is now serving as a part-time public service commissioner, and is a member of the board of The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.
In her speech, she thanked her husband Nick for understanding all the late nights and working weekends. She also thanked the colleagues who supported her, the bosses that took risks on her.
She thanked Mr. Harper “for hearing me out, even though I was not always on your wave-length.”
PM shuffles some senior mandarins
While Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognized Susan Cartwright for her work last week, he moved some of her colleagues in the upper levels of the public service to new posts.
Privy Council heavyweight Michael Martin who held the post of deputy secretary to Cabinet for operations, is now senior associate deputy minister of National Defence. Mr. Martin has been at PCO since 2010. Prior to that he was Canada’s chief negotiator and ambassador for climate change. After joining Foreign Affairs in 1984 has worked abroad, including in Canadian embassies in Beijing, China, and Tokyo, Japan.
Filling his position at PCO temporarily is Timothy Sargent. Mr. Sargent’s permanent post is as assistant secretary to Cabinet for economic and regional development policy at PCO. Since joining Finance Canada in 1994, Mr. Sargent rose through the ranks at that department until joining PCO in 2008. He has a Bachelor of Arts in economics and econometrics from the University of Manchester, a Master of Arts in economics from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of British Columbia.
The associate deputy minister of Public Safety, Graham Flack, is becoming deputy secretary to the Cabinet for plans and consultations and intergovernmental affairs at the Privy Council Office, effective Jan. 28. For much of 2012, Mr. Flack was acting deputy minister of public affairs after the departure of DM Bill Baker. Former Public Works deputy minister François Guimont was appointed to that role in November 2012.
It will not be Mr. Flack’s first stint in PCO. He worked there from 1999 to 2005 in a number of positions.
Taking Mr. Flack’s old position at Public Safety is John Ossowski, who becomes associate DM on Jan. 28. Until this week, he was assistant secretary of the international affairs, security and justice sector at Treasury Board Secretariat, a position he’s held since 2008. He has also worked at Communications Security Establishment Canada, Financial Transaction and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, Health Canada and Veterans Affairs. He has been in the public service since 1989.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: JESSICA BRUNO
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