Did you know that there’s a Government of Canada site for Governor-in-Council appointments?

Oh yes. You can find it right here. I mention it because when I heard the Treasury Board president announce his cuts, the thought occurred to me to see if those cuts were in any way — well, meaningful. As in “is somebody going to scream bloody murder if that position isn’t available?”

So here’s what I’m doing. I’m checking the TB backgrounder and how it describes its GiC cuts, and comparing it against what’s listed on the GiC site. The point of this is to see how much the perception left by the TB corresponds with the impression of the GiC site. (I am, of course, assuming that the GiC site is up to date; Government of Canada sites can be a bit lax in that regard.)

Shall we begin?

Canadian Grain Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 9 GiC positions, 6 cut
• On the GiC site: 9 GiC positions, 6 vacant (assistant commissioner level)
• Comment: No one let go, no one missed

National Farm Products Council

• What the Backgrounder lists: 9 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 9 GiC positions, 3 vacant
• Comment: Chairmanship is currently vacant; other vacancies are part-time

Canadian Council on the Status of the Artist

• What the Backgrounder lists: 12 GiC positions, 12 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: Based on this page from the Writers’ Union, the Council may be a defunct agency that shut down during the Chrétien era and was never re-activated.

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 19 GiC positions, 6 cut
• On the GiC site: 19 GiC positions, 6 vacant
• Comment: Vacancies are part-time positions

Canadian Race Relations Foundation and Investment Committee

• What the Backgrounder lists: 24 GiC positions, 11 cut
• On the GiC site: (Foundation) 21 positions, 11 vacancies; (Committee) 3 positions, 2 vacancies
• Comment: According to the by-laws, Committee members cannot be Foundation directors, and the current membership of the Foundation is all at the Director level. So it’s possible that the Committee vacancies are still available for appointment.

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada

• What the Backgrounder lists: 15 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 15 positions, no vacancies
• Comment: The appointments for two board members expire in June 2010, and one expires in October 2010. It’s possible that the June appointments won’t be replaced.

National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy

• What the Backgrounder lists: 26 GiC positions, 8 cut
• On the GiC site: 26 positions, 8 vacancies
• Comment: No one let go, no one missed

Canada Development Investment Corporation

• What the Backgrounder lists: 20 GiC positions, 9 cut
• On the GiC site: 19 positions, 5 vacancies
• Comment: The presidency is vacant, so that’s not eliminated. One director appointment expired in 2007. Another director appointment expires in June 2010, so that may not be renewed. Two auditor positions expired in 2009. The other vacancies are for auditor positions.

Canadian International Trade Tribunal

• What the Backgrounder lists: 9 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 9 positions, 8 vacancies
• Comment: The 8 vacancies include 5 “temporary” positions which have not been filled. I’m not sure why these weren’t listed, unless Treasury Board considered them a redundancy.

Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation – Advisory Committee

• What the Backgrounder lists: 12 GiC positions, 12 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: The Committee may have already been phased out.

Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada

• What the Backgrounder lists: 7 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 7 positions, 2 vacancies
• Comment: No one let go, no one missed

International Boundary Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: It doesn’t sound like the current commissioner, Peter John Sullivan, got fired; he’s had the job for nearly 14 years. And as far as I know, the IBC is still around.

International Development Research Centre

• What the Backgrounder lists: 21 GiC positions, 3 cut
• On the GiC site: 21 positions, 1 vacancy
• Comment: One appointment expires in 2010. The next appointment to expire, in February 2011, is Jocelyn Coulon of Montreal. (I wonder if this is the same Jocelyn Coulon whom Stéphane Dion appointed to run in Outremont, and lost to Thomas Mulcair? And if that’s the case, what do you suppose the odds are that he’ll be renewed, hmm?)

Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 3 GiC positions, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 3 positions with 6 alternates
• Comment: The three appointments took place in 1992, 1995 and 2002. I’m guessing an early retirement on this one.

Assisted Human Reproduction Agency of Canada

• What the Backgrounder lists: 13 GiC positions, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 13 positions, 3 vacancies
• Comment: Obviously one vacancy was eliminated, but what do you suppose is the deal with the other two?

Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse

• What the Backgrounder lists: 7 GiC positions, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 7 positions, 1 vacancy
• Comment: The vacancy is in the Chairman’s position. Note that none of the director positions are paid, although they get expense money.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

• What the Backgrounder lists: 19 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 19 positions, 4 vacancies
• Comment: Again the question: what’s the deal with the other two?

Canada Employment Insurance Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 4 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 4 positions
• Comment: One position expires Oct 2010; another expires one year later.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

• What the Backgrounder lists: 13 GiC positions, 3 cut
• On the GiC site: 13 positions, 4 vacancies
• Comment: Three of the vacancies are vice-presidencies.

Canada Pension Plan / Old Age Security: Review Tribunals

• What the Backgrounder lists: 400 GiC positions, 40 cut
• On the GiC site: 400 positions
• Comment: The reason why there are so many of these is that the positions are based in Canadian major urban centres. Memberships fall in three categories per center: legal, medical and community. Since several memberships expire this year, I’d expect to see a rationing of memberships for each centre.

Canada Pension Plan: Pensions Appeals Board

• What the Backgrounder lists: 12 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 12 positions, 5 vacancies
• Comment: This page also lists 67 “temporary” members, who are judges or former judges of the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeals or the superior courts of any province.

First Nations Financial Management Board

• What the Backgrounder lists: 12 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 12 positions, 5 vacancies
• Comment: The Board requires a minimum of 9 members.

First Nations Statistical Institute

• What the Backgrounder lists: 15 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 15 positions, 5 vacancies
• Comment: One vacancy is the Statistician. The Institute’s board requires a minimum of 8 directors.

National Aboriginal Economic Development Board

• What the Backgrounder lists: 20 GiC positions, 7 cut
• On the GiC site: 20 positions, 10 vacancies
• Comment: Two of the vacancies are vice-chairs.

Northern Flood Agreement

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC positions, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 1 position
• Comment: The listed arbitrator, George Campbell MacLean, died in 2008.

Business Development Bank of Canada

• What the Backgrounder lists: 15 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site:15 positions, 1 vacancy
• Comment: The President’s appointment expires in June 2010. We can assume one of the directors will be promoted in that event.

Canada Foundation for Innovation

• What the Backgrounder lists: 7 GiC positions, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 7 positions
• Comment: The Chairperson’s appointment expired in February 2010.

Canadian Space Agency

• What the Backgrounder lists: 2 GiC positions, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 2 positions, 1 vacancy
• Comment: No one let go, no one missed

Canadian Tourism Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 25 GiC positions, 14 cut
• On the GiC site: 25 positions, 2 vacancies
• Comment: 14 of the directorships appear to be “private sector” positions, which don’t receive pay.

National Research Council of Canada

• What the Backgrounder lists: 22 GiC positions, 3 cut
• On the GiC site: 22 positions, 5 vacancies
• Comment: One of the vacancies is the presidency.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

• What the Backgrounder lists: 22 GiC positions, 3 cut
• On the GiC site: 22 positions, 5 vacancies

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

• What the Backgrounder lists: 22 GiC positions, 3 cut
• On the GiC site: 22 positions, 4 vacancies

Space Advisory Board

• What the Backgrounder lists: 19 GiC positions, 19 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: This Board was apparently established at the same time as the Canadian Space Agency, but may now be defunct.

Standards Council of Canada

• What the Backgrounder lists: 13 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 13 positions, 2 vacancies
• Comment: The vacancies are a vice-chair post and a member from the public sector.

Export Development Canada

• What the Backgrounder lists: 15 GiC positions, 2 cut
• On the GiC site: 15 positions, 3 vacancies

NAFTA Secretariat, Canadian Section

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: The secretary position is currently listed as vacant.

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

• What the Backgrounder lists: 41 GiC positions, 18 cut
• On the GiC site: 23 positions, 5 vacancies
• Comment: The 41 positions here are the President, the Chairman, 13 governors (1 from each province and territory), 11 governors representing employers, 11 governors representing workers, and 4 representing federal ministries or Crown corporations. Right now, there are 4 governor nominees each from the employers’ and the employees’ groups; cut the 14 vacancies in these two, add the 4 from the federal bodies, and that’s your 18 — I think.

Military Police Complaints Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 7 GiC positions, 2 cuts
• On the GiC site: 7 positions, 4 vacancies
• Comment: One vacancy is the chair’s position. The filled positions are listed as part-time.

Alberta – British Columbia Boundary Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 1 position
• Comment: The person filling that position is the same person who is (was?) the commissioner for the International Boundary Commission. Note that the position is not a paid one.

Alberta – Northwest Territories Boundary Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: The Commission was created by an Order-in-Council (P.C. decisions 1950-692 and 1963-1118) and may now be defunct.

British Columbia – Yukon – Northwest Territories Boundary Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: The Commission was created by an Order-in-Council (P.C. decisions 1943-5355 and 1969-786) and may now be defunct.

Cape Breton Development Corporation

• What the Backgrounder lists: 7 GiC positions, 7 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: The Corporation ceased operations in 2001 and is now in the process of winding down operations.

Energy Supplies Allocation Board

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 7 positions, 1 vacancy
• Comment: The Commission was created in 1974. Given that the last director appointments were made in 1979 and that the current chair is a deputy minister, the Board may now be considered defunct.

Manitoba – Saskatchewan Boundary Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: The Commission may now be defunct.

Saskatchewan – Northwest Territories Boundary Commission

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: Not listed
• Comment: The Commission may now be defunct.

Intercolonial and P.E.I. Railways Employees Provident Fund

• What the Backgrounder lists: 1 GiC position, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 1 position, 1 vacancy
• Comment: The Fund was established in 1907; it may now be defunct.

Marine Atlantic Inc.

• What the Backgrounder lists: 15 GiC positions, 5 cut
• On the GiC site: 15 positions, 4 vacant
• Comment: A director appointment expired in January 2010.

Parc Downsview Park Inc.

• What the Backgrounder lists: 13 GiC positions, 4 cut
• On the GiC site: 13 positions, 1 vacant
• Comment: Three director appointments have already expired.

Via Rail Canada Inc.

• What the Backgrounder lists: 17 GiC positions, 4 cut
• On the GiC site: 17 positions, 1 vacant
• Comment: One director appointments has already expired; the chairman’s appointment expires in October 2010, and another will expire in 2011.

Canada School of Public Service

• What the Backgrounder lists: 15 GiC positions, 3 cut
• On the GiC site: 7 positions, 1 vacancy
• Comment: The Treasury Board lists the maximum number of governors, while the Appointments site only lists four (the rest are ex officio positions. I’m not sure why.

Public Sector Pension Investment Board

• What the Backgrounder lists: 12 GiC positions, 1 cut
• On the GiC site: 12 positions, 1 vacancy
• Comment: No one let go, no one missed

My conclusion? A lot of this wasn’t so much of a slashing exercise as it was a sweep-up; some bureaucratic house-cleaning to update the records at Treasury Board.

A couple of other things to bear in mind:

One: we’ve only looked at GiC appointments that were either (a) obsolete, (b) vacant for a while, or (c) about to be vacated and won’t be missed, if they’re not filled. In terms of actual termination of patronage (which is what’s really needed to get serious about reducing government), we haven’t even begun to lightly caress the surface, let along scratch it.

Two: any attempt to portray this as a way to deny the Liberals an opportunity to practice patronage should they return to power, is going to be laughed out D’Arcy McGee’s. The positions that were eliminated here, aren’t really worth having; and there’s tons of other GiC appointments, in more important government bodies, that would be of greater interest to those styled in the old-fashioned art of pork-barreling.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 21:57 and is filed under Federal Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.