SMIP Committee Report

OFFICERS OF PARLIAMENT

42.   There are several officers of Parliament – persons who report to Parliament, and are usually appointed in some way by the House and Senate. The principal officers are: the Auditor General, Chief Electoral Officer, the Official Languages Commissioner, the Access to Information Commissioner, and the Privacy Commissioner. In addition, there are the Clerk of the House of Commons, the Parliamentary Librarian, and the Ethics Counsellor with respect to the Lobbyists Registration Act.

43.   The appointment processes for these officers are inconsistent. Some of them require parliamentary approval, while others do not. In one case, the appointment is by a resolution of the House, while in other cases the appointment is by the Governor in Council following resolutions of the House and Senate. We believe that the appointment processes for these offices should be standardized.

44.Moreover, the practice has developed in recent years whereby a nominee for a parliamentary office appears before a committee before the motion to approve the appointment is voted on by the House. Members of the Committee support this procedure, and believe that it should be formalized in the Standing Orders.

The Committee recommends that the Government, following consultation with the opposition parties, should table a motion to appoint an officer of Parliament, and the individual should appear before the appropriate committee of the House before the motion is voted on. The appointment should be made only following approval of the appointment by resolution of the Senate and House of Commons; provided that in the case of the Chief Electoral Officer and the Clerk of the House of Commons, only the approval of the House would be required. The Committee recommends that the relevant statutes be amended accordingly. (Pursuant to our order of reference, recommendations for changes to relevant statutes shall be deemed to have been made pursuant to an Order adopted pursuant to Standing Order 68(4).)

The Committee recommends that the Standing Orders be amended as follows:

111.1 (a) Where the Government intends to appoint an Officer of Parliament, the Clerk of the House or the Parliamentary Librarian, the name of the proposed appointee  shall be deemed referred to the appropriate standing committee which may consider the appointment during a period of not more than thirty days following the tabling of a motion concerning the proposed appointment.

(b) Not later than the expiry of the thirty-day period provided for in the present Standing Order, a notice of motion shall be put under Routine Proceedings, to be decided without debate or amendment, ratifying the appointment.

45.   It is extremely important that the annual reports of the officers of Parliament are given careful and timely consideration. Concerns have been expressed that the annual reports of these officers are often overlooked, or not taken up. This is often because the committees involved are extremely busy with other matters. To remedy this situation, we believe that the annual reports of officers of Parliament should be deemed referred to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, in addition to their referral to any other committee of the House. The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs would be required to take up and consider the report within 30 sitting days if no other committee had convened a meeting on the report within the same period of time.

The Committee recommends that the Standing Orders be amended as follows:

108(1)(c) A committee to which the annual report of the Privacy Commissioner, the Access to Information Commissioner or the Ethics Counsellor with respect to his or her responsibilities under the Lobbyists Registration Act has been referred shall, at its next regularly scheduled meeting following the referral of such report to it, decide by motion whether or not the committee will hold hearings on the report and shall report the decision to the House.

108(3)  The mandate of the Standing Committee on:

(a) Procedure and House Affairs shall include, in addition to the duties set forth in Standing Order 104, and among other matters:

. . .

(v) the review of and report on the radio and television broadcasting of the proceedings of the House and its committees; (REMOVE and)

(vi) the review of and report on all matters relating to the election of Members to the House of Commons; and

(vii) where a committee to which the annual report of the Privacy Commissioner, the Access to Information Commissioner or the Ethics Counsellor with respect to his or her responsibilities under the Lobbyists Registration Act has been referred indicates, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(c), that it does not intend to consider the said report,  that annual report shall be withdrawn from the standing committee and be deemed referred to the Committee for a period of thirty sitting days following the tabling of the standing committee’s decision in the House.