Canada: Costly federal appointments commission has nothing much to do
Canada: Costly federal appointments commission has nothing much to do
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(From CBC News)
In the six years since the Harper government came to power, Canadian taxpayers have spent millions of dollars on supporting a federal appointments commission that doesn't exist.
The money has disappeared into a bureaucracy set up to support the commission - a bureaucracy that seems to have just about everything except a commission to support.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally announced the creation of the Public Appointments Commission in the spring of 2006, one of the first acts of his newly elected Conservative government and a centrepiece of its much-touted accountability policy.
At the same time, the government created a new federal department called the Public Appointments Commission Secretariat to support the commission with a budget of more than $1 million a year.
By cabinet decree, the secretariat reports directly to the prime minister.
In theory, the commission was to oversee the hiring process for hundreds of federal boards and agencies, ensuring appointments are made on merit and not just doled out to partisan pals of the party in power.
It all sounded like a good idea at the time. (...)
[After the federal opposition parties voted to block Harper's choice of commissioner], visibly angered and embarrassed, Harper scrapped the commission in retaliation.
But no one scrapped its bureaucracy, the appointments secretariat. Far from it.
(...)
By fall of last year, government documents show the Public Appointments Commission Secretariat had burned through just over $2.5 million in cash and donated federal services.
And still there is no sign of an appointments commission.
Exactly what the rather unique secretariat accomplished for all that cash remains something of a mystery.
More on this at the SOURCE...
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I hope I have chosen appropriate tags...
This is truly pathetic. This right-wing government is intent on destroying our system of social protections for the poor (far from perfect but better than nothing), as well as eliminating any and all recognition of basic human rights and democracy. Aside from these issues however, this government which campaigned on the idea that they would be more 'accountable' than their Liberal Party predecessors whose leadership of Canada ended in large part as a result of a corruption scandal (i.e. the 'sponsorship scandal' for those who remember).
Looks to me like they don't practice what they preach...
----------------------------
(From CBC News)
In the six years since the Harper government came to power, Canadian taxpayers have spent millions of dollars on supporting a federal appointments commission that doesn't exist.
The money has disappeared into a bureaucracy set up to support the commission - a bureaucracy that seems to have just about everything except a commission to support.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally announced the creation of the Public Appointments Commission in the spring of 2006, one of the first acts of his newly elected Conservative government and a centrepiece of its much-touted accountability policy.
At the same time, the government created a new federal department called the Public Appointments Commission Secretariat to support the commission with a budget of more than $1 million a year.
By cabinet decree, the secretariat reports directly to the prime minister.
In theory, the commission was to oversee the hiring process for hundreds of federal boards and agencies, ensuring appointments are made on merit and not just doled out to partisan pals of the party in power.
It all sounded like a good idea at the time. (...)
[After the federal opposition parties voted to block Harper's choice of commissioner], visibly angered and embarrassed, Harper scrapped the commission in retaliation.
But no one scrapped its bureaucracy, the appointments secretariat. Far from it.
(...)
By fall of last year, government documents show the Public Appointments Commission Secretariat had burned through just over $2.5 million in cash and donated federal services.
And still there is no sign of an appointments commission.
Exactly what the rather unique secretariat accomplished for all that cash remains something of a mystery.
More on this at the SOURCE...
------------
I hope I have chosen appropriate tags...
This is truly pathetic. This right-wing government is intent on destroying our system of social protections for the poor (far from perfect but better than nothing), as well as eliminating any and all recognition of basic human rights and democracy. Aside from these issues however, this government which campaigned on the idea that they would be more 'accountable' than their Liberal Party predecessors whose leadership of Canada ended in large part as a result of a corruption scandal (i.e. the 'sponsorship scandal' for those who remember).
Looks to me like they don't practice what they preach...