RECOMMENDATION 1
The processes of determining the budgets
of the Officers of Parliament actively involve Parliamentarians through the
Speakers of each House and an administrative committee before the budgets are
submitted to the Treasury Board for inclusion in the Estimates.
RESPONSE
The Government agrees with the Committee's
recommendation and is firmly committed to implementing a pilot project for a
new funding and oversight mechanism for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 Estimates
process for Agents of Parliament.
Included in the pilot are the Offices of the: Auditor General of Canada,
Chief Electoral Officer, Commissioner of Official Languages, Information
Commissioner, Privacy Commissioner.
The proposed new mechanism is
intended to respect the degree of independence of
Agents of Parliament, the role of Parliament in budget and oversight matters,
and the responsibility of the Government for the sound stewardship of public
resources.
The Government's approach takes
into consideration and is broadly consistent with the recommendations of the
Standing Senate Committee on National Finance as well as recommendations of the
Standing Committee on Public Accounts and the Standing Committee on Access to
Information, Privacy and Ethics. The
approach also reflects the outcome of comprehensive consultations with the
Agents of Parliament, Parliamentarians, and other experts.
Parliamentary control
and supervision of expenditure of public money would be strengthened by a new
provision for a parliamentary oversight panel (or equivalent). The panel would be appointed by the Speakers
of the Senate and the House of Commons, in consultation with the House Leaders,
and would aim to promote economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the funding
and oversight of Agents of Parliament.
This parliamentary oversight panel
would provide scrutiny of the Agents' financial plans, without compromising
Agents' independence and autonomy from Government. It would receive submissions from Agents during the fall period,
which coincides with the usual Annual Reference Level Update process. The Treasury Board Secretariat would
provide, as input to a parliamentary oversight panel, the broad budgetary
parameters as well as an assessment of the Agents' submissions. Finally, the recommendations of the
parliamentary oversight panel would be submitted by the Speakers to the
Treasury Board for inclusion in the Estimates.
The same procedure would be followed for the Supplementary Estimates
process.
The
pilot responds to requests from the Agents of Parliament and Parliamentarians
for greater Parliamentary oversight in the financial matters of the Agents and represents a significant change from the current funding and oversight
mechanism. The Government believes that this
two-year pilot is a prudent approach to introducing potentially longer-term
changes to the financial and oversight mechanism for Agents of Parliament.
Over the coming weeks, the Government
will work with Parliamentarians and Agents of Parliament to ensure successful
implementation of the pilot.
RECOMMENDATION 2
The appointment process for all Officers
of Parliament be reviewed and streamlined and that Parliament be more engaged
in their recruitment, approval and removal.
RESPONSE
For the purposes of this
paper the Senate considers Officers of Parliament to be:
-
Auditor General
-
Chief Electoral Officer
-
Commissioner of Official
Languages
-
Information Commissioner
-
Privacy Commissioner
Legislation,
the Rules of the Senate, and the Standing Orders of the House of Commons ensure
that Parliament has an appropriate role to play in the appointment of Agents of
Parliament and is able to satisfy itself that the appointments are competency-based,
professional and transparent.
The
appointment process for these Agents of Parliament is appropriately
streamlined, subject to differences, which reflect some variation in their
relationships to Parliament. For three of the Agents of Parliament – the
Information Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner and the Commissioner of
Official Languages – the requirements for appointment are essentially
identical. They differ for the Chief
Electoral Officer (CEO) and the Auditor General, reflecting their different
relationship with the executive and Parliament and its constituent houses.
The
Chief Electoral Officer is appointed by resolution of the House of Commons and
reports only to the House of Commons.
This reflects the fact that the Chief Electoral Officer is responsible
for ensuring the integrity of the democratic process and carries out a
function, which is intimately associated with the House of Commons, as the
elected chamber of Parliament.
The
Auditor General also reports only to the House of Commons. This reflects the Auditor General's key role
in supporting the House of Commons in its monitoring of the financial affairs
of the Government.
Recruitment
and appointment is a function of the Executive, subject to Parliamentary
oversight. For all of the Agents of
Parliament, Parliament has the ability to review and/or approve their
appointments and, therefore, to hold the Government to account for its exercise
of executive authority. Under Standing
Order 111.1, the House of Commons can review the proposed appointments of all
five Agents of Parliament. In addition,
for three of the Agents – Information Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner
and the Commissioner of Official Languages – the Senate and the House of
Commons must approve of their appointments by resolution.
Finally
all of these Agents of Parliament can only be removed on address of the Senate
and the House of Commons. With the
exception of the CEO, removal is by the Governor in Council on address of the
Senate and House of Commons. The CEO
can only be removed by the Governor General on address of the Senate and the
House of Commons.
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