Advertisement

Harper’s contract extensions of political appointments criticized

Harper’s contract extensions of political appointments criticized

Stephen Harper renewed an “unprecedented” number of political appointments before his departure that seemed designed to keep it business as usual regardless of who won the federal election.

The former PM granted 49 contract extensions, an iPolitics review found — some of them long before they were due to expire, some of them at government agencies and Crown corporations that were mired in controversy during his tenure.

For instance, National Energy Board (NEB) vice-chair Lyne Mercier’s contract was scheduled to be up in December, but Harper renewed the appointment back in June for seven years, which keeps Mercier in place until 2022.

Three other members of the board had their contracts renewed much earlier this year though they weren’t set to expire until around this time.

The NEB’s role as regulator of the oil, gas and electricity industries has put it at the centre of heated partisan debate over oilsands pipeline projects such as Keystone XL, Northern Gateway, Trans Mountain and Energy East.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has criticized how the agency was run under the Conservative government and said in August he would restore “a level of independence and intellectual rigor” to its processes.

Heads of agencies, CEOs of Crown corporations and members of quasi-judicial tribunals are appointed through an Order in Council (OIC), proposed by the minister in charge of the organization.

So former Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander recommended the renewal of five members of the Immigration and Refugee Board — another area in which Harper government policies stirred strong opposition.

On Monday, those five contract extensions went into effect, all of them the result of OICs that were made and accepted in May or June.

Another OIC proposed by Alexander in May, to extend the contract of a citizenship judge, went into effect last month.

A number of other renewals don’t kick in until 2016, like the contracts of the directors of the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Canadian Museum of History. The contract renewal of the chair of the Transportation Appeal Tribunal won’t go into force until 2019.

It’s par for the course for a government to make appointments that match its ideology, but the timing of these appointments raises questions, says one expert.

“I think the thing that’s worrisome is appointments that don’t kick in till 2016,” Queens University political studies professor Jonathan Rose says. “Clearly he knew he was facing an election and there was not an immediate need to fill those positions.”

There may have been some vacancies in need of staff, but “the rest smack of old-fashioned patronage,” Rose says.

Still, that doesn’t mean the appointees aren’t qualified. And if they’re prudent, they’ll play nicely with the new administration.

“Any appointee would know they sit at the pleasure of the government and they’d be wise to heed the (mandate) of this government.”

An appointment can be either “during good behaviour” (may only be removed for cause) or “during pleasure” (may be removed at the discretion of the Governor in Council). It’s unclear whether Trudeau can cancel any of them. Yahoo Canada News has reached out to the current Minister of Natural Resources and the current Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship for comment on the contract renewals that come under their purview.

At least one former Conservative MP thinks Trudeau shouldn’t honour the appointments.

“Harper made 49 future patronage appointments before ousted, unprecedented, should be reversed,” Inky Mark wrote Monday on Twitter.

Mark clashed with Harper and with the party often during his tenure representing the Manitoba riding of Dauphin-Swan River between 1997 and 2010.