Ottawa asking dozens of Conservative board, agency appointees to resign

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This article was published 07/12/2015 (3795 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – A Manitoba cabinet minister confirmed Monday the government is asking for the resignations of several dozen people appointed by the former Conservative government to national boards and agencies.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr told reporters after question period Monday letters will be sent today asking people who were appointed to a number of different positions in the waning days of the Harper government to quit.

“Well, the letters will be asking people who were appointed to government boards subsequent to the election to reconsider their options, and they will be asked to step aside,” Carr said. “I will respect that letter, what’s in that letter and those people will do what they think is right for Canada.”

An investigation by iPolitics last month found the Harper government made 49 appointments to tribunals and government boards and agencies in the final year of its mandate but whose start dates didn’t take place until after the Oct. 19 election — some for many months after. It seemed clear many of the appointments were made to prevent a future government from putting its own stamp on certain agencies, should the Conservatives lose the election.

The Conservatives did lose, and the Liberals now face a bill of as much as $18.5 million to buy out the appointees if they won’t step aside willingly.

Several of the appointments are for terms longer than the current Liberal mandate, meaning they won’t expire until long after the next election.

A handful of them are in Carr’s portfolio, particularly the National Energy Board. The Liberals have pledged to modernize the NEB, which grants permits for things such as pipelines. That means trying to change its composition to ensure viewpoints from all regions, and expertise on the environment and indigenous knowledge, are taken into account.

But the Conservatives renewed or appointed several board appointments ahead of schedule, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau right now won’t have any openings for temporary measures until 2018 and for permanent members until 2020.

Carr said he thinks a few dozen letters were being sent out centrally from the government Monday, but wouldn’t or couldn’t say what the government will do if the appointees don’t step aside as asked.

“We’ll be respectful of people’s capacity to make a decision. The letter will ask them to step aside. We’ll give them time to make that decision and we’ll be respectful of the process.”

Twenty-four of the 49 early appointees were made conditional on good behaviour, which means they can only be fired for bad behaviour.

Twenty appointments were made with the distinction “during pleasure,” which gives the government the ability to fire them without cause.

One can be cancelled with 60 days’ notice, and the remaining four have no such designation.

Mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca