Source : Ottawa Citizen

New legislation would allow cabinet to fire bureacrats without 'cause'

by Tony Atherton

A new federal bill could speed up the firing of some bureaucrats who, like the high-living former Labour Relations Board chairman Ted Weatherhill, land in the government’s bad books, says a Treasury Board spokesman.

But critics of Bill-C44 say it also threatens the arm’s-length relationship between the government and various arts agencies, and could turn the CBC into a state mouthpeice.

Former CBC president Tony Manera says the bill would mean that government could fire the CBC’s president, chairman and board members on a whim without ever having to explain itself.

"It goes against all the traditions of the CBC. The whole arms-length principle, I think, is at stake here," Mr. Manera said in an interview last week. "I was surprised the government would propose something like that."

That national film commissioner and directors of the National Film Board would similarly be subject to summary firing under the bill, which also gives cabinet a stronger role in appointments to museum boards and Telefilm Canada.

"The danger is that (CBC) directors, including the president, being human beings, will not want to antagonize the government of the day, particularly in news and current affairs (programming), because their security depends on the pleasure of the government," Mr. Manera said.

In a letter sent to current CBC president Perrin Beatty last week, the lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says the bill "seems to be the first step by a government intent on turning the CBC into a state broadcaster, beholden to the pleasures, and accountable politically, to the government of the day."

Mr. Beatty, who is on vacation, had yet to receive the letter on Friday, but said through a spokeswoman that he was concerned by the implications of the bill. The CBC’s Laurie Jones said Mr. Beatty feels that it could erode the CBC’s jealously guarded independence from cabinet.

Mr. Beatty did not say whether he planned to take any action as a result of his concerns.

Bill C-44, introduced for first reading just before Parliament’s summer break, comes out of Treasury Board’s 1995 review of federal agencies and is intended to streamline and make more accountable the operations of Crown corporations, boards and other government-appointed bodies, says Treasury Board spokesman Michel Marquis.

The bill would disband seven largely defunct organizations, including the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Committee and the Petroleum Monitoring Agency. Some 120 cabinet appointed positions would be eliminated, said Mr. Marquis.

But it is a small change in the wording of appointment procedures for six government bodies, including the CBC and NFB, that has caused the controversy.

Currently the appointments of the CBC president and the CBC board, and those of the film commissioner and the NFB board, can only be rescinded by cabinet "for cause", meaning the government has to justify the firing. The new bill says that the appointees would hold office "during pleasure", meaning that they could be fired simply for displeasing cabinet.

Terminating appointments for "just cause" can be a long and messy process, as the government learned when it tired to oust Mr. Weatherhill, the former chairman of the Canadian Labour Relations Board. His predilection for expensive meals, which he charged to the government, outraged taxpayers when revealed in a series of articles in the Citizen.

However, not all the government agencies have changed their appointment proceedings, but only those that the government feels do not need as much independence, such as the CBC and the NFB, says Mr. Marquis.

The Canadian Labour Relations Board, it turns out, would not be subject to the change, because as a quasi-judicial tribunal it is deemed to need more independence from government than the CBC, says Mr. Marquis.

The bill also changes the role of the museum boards and the board of Telefilm Canada in appointing new directors. Currently, board appointments are recommended by the boards themselves and approved by cabinet. The act would see the appointments recommended by the responsible cabinet minister, in this case Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, "in consultation with" the boards.

While a Telefilm spokeswoman said yesterday that the agency sees no problem with the change, it has raised some concern among museum boards.

Ian Morrison, of the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, called the intentions of the bill "sneaky."

"I cannot believe that (the bill) would … go through the various processes that the government has … without warning bells going off."

© The Ottawa Citizen

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See also: Letter to CBC President Re: Bill C-44