will come from the PMO and party headquarters.
“They are the agenda. They’re where the agenda comes from. Part of the reason why it’s an invisible power, other than that the work of Cabinet is appropriately secret most of the time, is that the biggest thing they do is stop bad things from emerging and appropriating more of the taxpayers’ money or distracting from the agenda,” said Chad Rogers, a partner at Crestview Strategies who’s formerly worked on Conservative election campaigns.
Mr. Rogers said the “invisible power” of Cabinet committees is “exercised by the most trusted members of Cabinet,” in particular when it comes to who is in charge of these committees as chair.
There are a total of seven Cabinet committees: Priorities and Planning, chaired by Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southeast, Alta.); Operations, chaired by Employment and Social Development Minister Jason Kenney (Calgary Southwest, Alta.); Treasury Board, chaired by Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.); Treasury Board Subcommittee on Government Administration, also chaired by Mr. Clement; Social Affairs, chaired by Health Minister Rona Ambrose (Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Alta.); Economic Prosperity, chaired by Public Works Minister Diane Finley (Haldimand-Norfolk, Ont.); and Foreign Affairs and Security, chaired by Justice Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.).
“Cabinet, with all its members, doesn’t have time to deliberate on every issue as deeply as it might like,” said Mr. Rogers.
“Cabinet committees will deliberate everything the government will announce before the next election, so any major undertakings, yes, Cabinet committee is going to have their hands all over it, but that’s not a very transparent process,” he said.
Keith Beardsley, president of Cenco Public Affairs and a former deputy chief of staff for issues management to Mr. Harper in the PMO, said Cabinet committees screen all proposals and initiatives put to the government, including departmental ones, and serve as a “filter.”
“They filter out ideas. They look at them, they analyze and they aim them,” said Mr. Beardsley.
That the pre-election ramp up ahead of 2015 has already begun is now a widely-accepted fact on Parliament Hill. On Sept. 15, Mr. Harper kicked off the start of the new fall session, expected to be the last full session before the next election, with a campaign-style speech to Conservative MPs, ministers, party supporters, and staffers, focused on the government’s economic track record and commitments.
The government is expected to focus on the economy on its road to 2015, and has specifically highlighted tax relief, income splitting, and consumer protection measures as key points in its agenda, as well as highlighting free trade agreements and resource development.
With an election one year out, Mr. Beardsley said the importance of the work of these committees “would be up there quite high.”
“You don’t want something to blow in your face, you don’t want there to be repercussions, or something you didn’t think about, or didn’t plan for. They’re going to be looking at everything very, very closely,” said Mr. Beardsley.
Tim Powers, vice president at Summa Strategies, said at this point in time out from an election, there’s likely “greater awareness” among Cabinet committee members of the “lens” through which decisions are being made.
When the election gets closer, though, Mr. Powers said the brunt of political strategy and decision-making will come from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and staff at party headquarters.
While the work of these committees is conducted behind closed-doors, political observers still keep an eye out for committee membership, in particular who is made chair.
Mr. Beardsley said chairs of these committees have “a certain degree of trust” from the Prime Minister as they are tasked with “moving the agenda along” at committee.
Mr. Beardsley said as chair of operations, Mr. Kenney’s role is a “vital” one.
“It’s the airing of the things and making sure that every minister has a chance to say something and when the bureaucrats are brought in; they’re asked the right questions because they’re looking at, ‘What’s the political impact of these decisions? How practical are they? How expensive are they? What’s the communications plan?’” said Mr. Beardsley.
Mr. Rogers said it takes three main qualities to be named a committee chair by the Prime Minister: first, is ideological alignment with the PM; second, is an ability to work hard and internalize information quickly; and third, an ability to be firm with colleagues.
“He has to know that you are going to act in his spirit and with his perspective when you chair that meeting,” said Mr. Rogers.
Mr. Rogers said Cabinet committee members and chairs take on a “fairly unforgiving schedule.”
“Even more briefings and submissions than even your peers who are senior Cabinet ministers have to. When I talk about sheer amounts [of work], I’m talking hours of binders to read in addition to your normal Cabinet work, in addition to your normal minister work, in addition to your normal MP work every week,” he said.
Mr. Rogers said while he anticipates the work of Cabinet committees will “dwindle” once the next budget is out, at which point the Conservative Party’s 2015 election campaign will become the central focus of work led by the PMO and party headquarters, between now and the next budget he expects Cabinet committees to be “swamped” with work.
“Ministers practically need more time to be out meeting with the public and stakeholders—an additional 10 hours of reading a week becomes less practical as you near October 2015,” said Mr. Rogers. But “between now and the budget, they’ll be swamped.”
But not all committees are made equal. Priorities and Planning, also referred to as P&P, is the most powerful, given that it’s chaired by Mr. Harper and is mandated to provide strategic direction on government decisions and priorities.
Mr. Beardsley said other than Priorities and Planning, the Cabinet Committee on Operations is an “absolutely crucial” committee when it comes to the Harper government’s agenda.
“There’s nothing that happens in the government without being run through the Operations Committee,” said Mr. Beardsley.
“The main committee that is responsible for that [analyzing and aiming ideas] in the initial stages is always government operations. That’s always been, under this government anyways, probably one of your single most important committees because nothing happens unless there’s a political look at the issue. They review everything from a political perspective, as much as what’s good government … they either say ‘yea’ or ‘nay,’ and if they say ‘yea’ then it will go up to one of the other committees for further discussion,” he said.
Mr. Rogers said the two “big pillar committees” in Cabinet, aside from Priorities and Planning, are the Operations and Economic Prosperity committees, chaired by Mr. Kenney and Ms. Finley, respectively.
“I don’t think all Cabinet committees are created equal in terms of either volume of work undertaken or the authority which the chair has,” said Mr. Rogers.
“Anything that’s got policy or a dollar attached to it is going to go through those two. It’s going to go through on or the other,” he said.
Despite widespread perceptions of overarching PMO control, former Harper Cabinet minister Stockwell Day, now a senior strategic adviser at McMillan LLP in Vancouver, B.C., said while the PMO will at times “be clear about making their preference known” on some decisions, aside from election commitments, Cabinet committees don’t just receive orders from the top.
“On other items, he [Prime Minister Stephen Harper] might send a message, or a message might come out from the Prime Minister’s Office to a minister at committee saying this or that. If you disagree with it, I had found that if you’ve got all your ducks lined up in a row, you’ve got your facts straight, you put it on the table and you make a vigorous case—he listens to that…. He expects people to step up if they’ve got a legitimate concern about bills, and they will be listened to,” said Mr. Day.
Mr. Day said the work of Cabinet committees “definitely increases” at this point out from an election, and he said “smart” Conservative MPs will know which ministers are on which committees in order to bend their ear and “get their own oar in the water,” when it comes to the government’s agenda.
“This is a pretty intense time,” he said.
During his time in the PMO, Mr. Beardsley said he frequently sat in on meetings of the Cabinet Operations Committee. He said either himself or then PMO senior adviser Bruce Carson would always be at the Operations Committee meetings, but he said they weren’t there to dictate direction.
“They [the committee] consulted pretty closely with us to see where PMO was going on certain issues and what were our concerns prior to the discussions happening and then even in the discussion it wouldn’t be unusual for them to turn to one of us and say, ‘Do you guys have anything else you want to add from a PMO perspective?’ Because obviously we had our own opinions, we were aware of some issues that ministers might not be. It was a pretty easy-going, relaxed relationship—it wasn’t dictatorial or anything like that,” said Mr. Beardsley.
“I’ve seen them [ministers on committees] push back pretty hard on issues that they thought hadn’t been vetted enough politically,” he said.
Political observers are widely expecting that the current Cabinet roster is the one Mr. Harper intends to lead into the next election.
“Barring unforeseen circumstances, this is the Cabinet he’s sending out to talk to the country in advance of 2015,” said Mr. Rogers.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Laura Ryckewaert
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