Thank you, Mr. Chairman and honourable members of the committee.
Mr. Chairman, honourable members of the committee,
l am pleased to appear before you to answer any questions you may have concerning the report entitled “Governor in Council Appointments Process—Immigration and Refugee Board”. This report was prepared by the Public Appointments Commission Secretariat for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
I would like to begin my comments by providing committee members with some contextual remarks. The Public Appointments Commission Secretariat was created by order in council on April 21, 2006 and I was appointed Executive Director and Deputy Head of the Secretariat on the same day. Orders in council were also published allowing for the appointment of commissioners.
At that point in time, Bill C-2, the Federal Accountability Act, made reference to the Public Appointments Commission by proposing a change to the Salaries Act. The draft bill was later amended in committee to include the mandate of the commission. This mandate includes a provision in clause 227 “to perform any other function specified by the Governor in Council.”
The Secretariat was asked to undertake a review of the appointment process for members of the Immigration and Refugee Board. Following discussions with the Privy Council Office, the Secretariat prepared terms of reference for this review. These were approved by the minister and made public on November 3, 2006. Please see annex 1 of the report.
Immigration and Refugee Board members are appointed by the Governor in Council upon the recommendation of the minister. The overall selection process was amended considerably in March 2004, as announced by the then-minister—see annex 4 of the report—and the objective of the review we were asked to do was to assess
How effective is this new approach in meeting the objective of merit-based appointments while respecting the prerogative of the GiC, and what if any are the options for updating it?
The Secretariat worked closely with IRB officials in acquiring and reviewing relevant information. Discussions were also held with members of the IRB, IRB leadership, and with members of the chairperson's advisory panel. Secretariat officials also attended hearings of the IRB in order to understand the complex nature of members' tasks. These are reviewed in the section of the report entitled "The Work Context". A third party, Sussex Circle, was engaged to review the exam which is employed as a selection tool by the IRB and to recommend possible changes which could lead to greater efficiencies.
The report contains, Mr. Chairman, nine recommendations dealing with the timeliness of recruitment campaigns; the need for targeted advertising; implementation of the exam pass mark; consideration of merging the advisory panel and chairperson's selection board; ministerial involvement in determining membership of selection boards, as was intended in 2004; maintenance of the practice of providing the Governor in Council several names for each vacancy; keeping candidates for appointment and reappointment apprised of their situation; making initial appointments for three years; and making reappointments for five and two years respectively.
The report was submitted to the minister in early 2007. Since January 21, 2007, I have been appointed by the Governor in Council to other duties.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I trust this provides you with helpful information, and I will try to answer any questions you may have.