Evidence of meeting #17 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was job.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
No, they were created in.... Yes, that's right. They were created at that time. I'm not sure if it was December or January when they were created. If it matters exactly when they were created, I'll have to come back to you on the exact dates.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
12:50 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
It was the end of last year.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Were they paid under the phantom? If they weren't paid twice, were they paid only for the job they were doing, or for the other job?
12:50 p.m.
NDP
12:50 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
They were paid in the job, their substantive job, which was in the minister's office.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Page 83 of the report says that one of the jobs was requested by the individual himself or herself, but the other job was a direct request from an individual in the minister's office. Can you tell us which ministry that request came from?
12:50 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
Well, the detailed files would have that in them. I didn't include that in this report, and I get really nervous about the extent to which I'm going to be divulging information that's going to finger individuals. I'm reluctant to go much further than what is--
12:50 p.m.
NDP
12:50 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
I actually don't know it off the top of my head, but I know it is in my files.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Okay.
Someone said earlier that this was an insurance plan for people. It was a nice parachute, I guess, if you were facing insecurity, but it does impact on the rights of other people who might expect these kinds of positions. Were the positions that would have been affected and the ripple effect as it went down, if other people could have bid into these jobs, have affected people who were part of a bargaining unit?
12:50 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
The impact on other people is really from how you're avoiding the priority system. These special assignments are not the kinds of jobs that you see posted or are competed for, but if you were to come back into the public service through the priority system, you would have to take your place in the priority system and follow that process. By having these jobs, these individuals were not going that route, so that's where the impact on others was.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Could it affect other people, people who are in a bargaining unit?
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
So if someone was facing a layoff and wanted to be in one of these priority jobs, it would potentially affect that person?
12:50 p.m.
President, Public Service Commission of Canada
There are two different things going on here. You have the priority system; that is the way these people should have come through. If you were laid off, you would then have an entitlement, as a person laid off in the public service, to go through the priority system. Then there's a bit of a ranking among those.
Usually we do the surpluses first and then the ministerial priority. If we have a job that looks as though it meets your skills, we say, “This meets your skills” and turn it over to the managers. Before we say you can go ahead and hire someone, you have to have gone through the priority system.
So it's in that way that other people could be affected.
In terms of creating these special assignments, there's quite a bit of discretion on those, and I don't think it was denying somebody else something in the system.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
So you don't think someone would have been negatively impacted by not having this position created, because there could have been two or three or four other positions created in a similar fashion?
