“There was an excellent response from highly-qualified candidates to the national executive search campaign,” Library of Parliament spokesperson Cynthia Cusinato told The Hill Times.
The process for choosing the new PBO is “still underway” she added.
The names of three potential candidates may have been sent to Government House Leader Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.), according to a report in iPolitics based on unnamed sources. Mr. Van Loan’s office would only state that a new PBO would be chosen “in due course,” according to the report.
The Library of Parliament is in charge of finding the next budget officer. Ms. Cusinato declined to answer any questions about how far along the selection process is, who will sit on the committee alongside Librarian of Parliament Sonia L’Heureux that chooses the final candidates and recommends them to the government, how many applications were received, or whether they were still accepting resumes.
“We don’t know who’s on the selection committee, we have no idea who has applied, where they are at in the process. There are excellent candidates already working in the Parliamentary Budget Office, I’m sure there are other outstanding people working in other places, but we have no knowledge about this,” said NDP MP Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park, Ont.), her party’s Finance critic.
After five years in the post, Kevin Page ended his term as budget officer on March 25. He was Canada’s first PBO. In the months leading up to his departure, he spoke publicly of his concern that little progress was being made in the search for his replacement.
On top of her regular duties as Parliamentary Librarian, Ms. L’Heureux is acting as interim budget officer and she is in charge of the search for a permanent replacement.
The PBO is not a full officer of Parliament like the auditor general, and is technically an employee of the Library.
The Library has hired executive search firm Renaud Foster to solicit candidates. A selection committee made up of former high-level bureaucrats and others will review the candidates. The committee will then submit the names of three candidates to the government, who makes the final selection and appointment.
“We think that the whole process for selecting the PBO should be open and transparent, but that it needs to be completed as quickly as possible,” said Ms. Nash.
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s, Ont.) said she wants to address the search for a new PBO at the House and Senate’s Joint Standing Committee on the Library of Parliament, but the Conservatives have not wanted to call a meeting.
“The thing that concerns me a lot is that they also have refused to call a committee meeting of the Library of Parliament committee where we would be able to ask those kinds of questions as to what the problem is, and what is the status of the search,” she said.
The committee is co-chaired by Liberal Ontario Senator Marie Charette-Poulin and Conservative MP Royal Galipeau (Ottawa-Orléans, Ont.). It hasn’t met since December 2012, and most of its prior meetings in the current Parliament have been brief and administrative, according to the minutes.
“We aren’t doing the work we should be,” said Ms. Bennett, who is a former co-chair of the committee but is now a regular member.
“An exit interview [with Mr. Page] would have been important in terms of a job description and in terms of the Library of Parliament committee perhaps wanting to look at whether this position has the powers it requires to be able to compel departments to cooperate,” she explained.
Mr. Galipeau, who has chaired the committee since the 2011 election, disagreed that it was the committee’s job to monitor the selection process.
“It would be most inappropriate for elected officials to put their nose in the selection process for that position,” he said.
“This committee is an advisory committee. This committee doesn’t have executory powers,” he added. He said the committee’s job is to provide advice to the Speakers of the House and Senate, and that Ms. L’Heureux doesn’t report to the committee.
“We don’t meet just because one member of the committee has got a hobby horse. That’s not the purpose of the committee,” he said.
“I like to keep this committee non-partisan. We’re talking about the Library, we’re not talking about the Keystone pipeline here. If any member of the committee wants to use the committee for political purposes, they will meet resistance,” he added.
Ms. Bennett said she continues to be concerned about the quality of candidates for the job, despite the Library’s statement that many qualified candidates have come forward.
“We’ll have to see, won’t we, as to how this process is. … Are the candidates prepared to tow the line of the government or are they prepared to stand up to the government? That would be my concern at this time,” she said.
In the mean time, it’s unacceptable that Ms. L’Heureux has to fill both positions, said Ms. Bennett and Ms. Nash.
“What we’re seeing now is a diminished voice for that accountability. Nothing against the interim PBO who is the head of the Library of Parliament, but she already had a full time job and she’s taking this on in addition to her other work,” Ms. Nash said.
Ms. L’Heureux has a master’s degree in economics and has worked as an analyst in the Finance Department. She is not being paid any money additional to her regular salary for filling in for the PBO, Ms. Cusinato stated.
The Conservatives created the position under the Federal Accountability Act in 2006. The selection process that eventually picked Mr. Page started in August 2007. He was appointed in March 2008.
That selection committee included then-Public Service Commissioner Maria Barrados, former NDP MP Bill Knight, and Don Drummond. While there were 24 applicants and eight finalists, eventually Mr. Page was deemed the only qualified candidate.
It’s possible someone could be appointed over the summer while the House is adjourned, noted Ms. Bennett.
“It’s possible to walk it around to sufficient Cabinet ministers to be able to make the appointment,” she noted.
Ms. Nash noted that a summer appointment would be useful if the government wanted to avoid opposition scrutiny of the candidate.
“The government could appoint someone in the summer months, especially if they’re concerned there might be any kind of criticism, it would be a better time for them when Parliament doesn’t meet,” she said.
Being the PBO pays between $139,900 and $164,500. The office has a budget of $2.8-million and has a staff of about 14.
“I’m sure that the next Parliamentary Budget Officer will do his job or her job to the best of his ability or her ability,” said Mr. Galipeau.
Renaud Foster has posted the job description for the budget officer on its website.
The four-page post states “the PBO functions in a dynamic, partisan and often high-charged political environment and must maintain a credible reputation with parliamentarians and federal departments and agencies.”
The NDP has introduced three bills that would make the budget officer a full agent of Parliament, but none have made it past first reading. The most recent is bill C-476, introduced by leader Tom Mulcair (Outrement, Que.) in February. It would make the office independent and budget officers would be appointed with the approval of every party in the House.
“It would take away the uncertainty surrounding the nomination of the PBO,” said Ms. Nash.
Ms. Bennett said she wonders who would want the job in light of the government’s dismissive attitude toward the budget officer over Mr. Page’s tenure.
“Who would want this job? When you actually have to go to court to get the information you need,” she said.
In fall of 2012 Mr. Page took the government to Federal Court in a bid to clarify his mandate, after being denied access to financial information by departments. Mr. Page wanted information on how departments planned to fulfill the commitments to budget cuts in the 2012 budget. He sought an affirmation from the court that he could demand this information.
In April, the Federal Court declined to weigh in on Mr. Page’s mandate.
Last week the budget office published a report on the government’s savings from budget 2012 with the information it had, from about 75 per cent of departments.
“The data do not permit the PBO to fully complete its analysis. However, they do provide evidence that in the short-term, the Government of Canada (government) will be able to implement the budget 2012 reduction package. Over the longer-term, data are insufficient to assess whether the cuts are fiscally sustainable,” the PBO report states.
The office also sent a new document request to Treasury Board Secretariat last week, asking for information on how it has estimated it would cost $45-million to overhaul the government’s financial systems and how it presents financial information to Parliamentarians in the estimates documents.
Ms. Nash said there shouldn’t have been a need to appoint an interim budget officer.
“Normally, the selection process for an officer of Parliament, it is a fairly lengthy process, which is why it should have been started many, many months ago and not left until the last minute,” she said.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: JESSICA BRUNO
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