The Harper government is doing some internal housecleaning with the introduction of a new performance-review system for bureaucrats. Treasury Board President Tony Clement on Tuesday unveiled a new grading system for all employees, which aims to increase productivity and efficiency by weeding out workers who underperform.
"Either poor performers improve and become productive employees or we will let them go," he said in a news release.
But on the same day Clement announced the initiative, which goes into effect next April, CTV News learned that the federal government is spending approximately $250,000 on a three-day training session for members of the Parole Board of Canada.
The meeting, which is taking place at the Westin hotel in Edmonton, involves more than 70 board members from across the country and includes two guest speakers that were flown in from the United Kingdom.
Parole Board of Canada chairperson Harvey Cenaiko told CTV News the meeting is "nothing fancy."
"There’s nothing expensive going on here other than training… to ensure the protection of Canadians," he said.
But despite Cenaiko’s claim, some critics are pointing at the price tag.
"When you have a minister that’s preaching fiscal accountability and fiscal restraint and you see this take place, that’s when people get upset," Liberal MP Roger Cuzner said Tuesday at Parliament Hill.
"This is a bad week to be blowing a bunch of money on travel and hotel rooms," said Gregory Thomas, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, referring to the ongoing Senate expense claims scandal.
Thomas said the fact that the parole board is calling the three-day training session a "meeting" and not a conference – which would require the minister of public safety to sign off on the event -- is an insult to taxpayers.
"What’s the difference between a meeting and a conference? Obviously there’s no difference at all. People are sick to death of all this game playing with the books to skirt around the rules," he said.
But according to Cenaiko, the meeting will benefit Canadians. The two guest speakers from Europe have expertise in extremism and violent radicalization, he explained. “As you’re aware, they have a history that goes back 30 years in relation to radicalization and extreme violence.”
"Society has changed, especially over the last 10 years."
He added that parole board members will also have an opportunity to tour healing lodges so that they are better equipped to interact with the Native population.
The tours will give members an opportunity to learn about "some of the aboriginal concerns that we have in relation to the number of aboriginal offenders that are in our institution."
According to Cenaiko, the Parole Board did not host a meeting last fiscal year.
Original Article
Source: ctvnews.ca
Author: CTVNews.ca Staff
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