Public Safety Committee on June 21st, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Good morning, and welcome. This is meeting number two of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, on Monday, June 21, 2011.

In our first hour this morning we will study the Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner selection criteria. Appearing as witnesses we have, from the Department of Public Safety, Graham Flack, associate deputy minister, and from the Privy Council, Patricia Hassard, deputy secretary to the cabinet, senior personnel and public service renewal.

Welcome.

As the chair, and on behalf of our committee, I thank all the witnesses for coming to committee on such short notice. We appreciate your response and your presence here today.

I understand that there will be an opening statement. We would welcome that now. Then we will proceed into our first round of questions.

Madam Hassard, if you would like to, please begin.

We've just now heard a cellphone going off. I would ask everyone to shut down their phones or put them on vibrate. We're able to conduct a meeting much better if these are not going off every minute.

[Patricia Hassard, Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, Senior Personnel and Public Service Renewal, Privy Council Office]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Good morning to you and to the honourable members. I'm pleased to appear before you today to consult you on the criteria we propose to use to find the next commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

I have with me Mr. Graham Flack, the associate deputy minister at Public Safety Canada, whom you've already met.

Section 5 of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act sets out the statutory requirements related to the appointment of the commissioner by the Governor in Council. Governor in Council--or GIC--appointments are those made by the Governor General on the advice of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada as represented by cabinet.

The government is committed to competency-based, open and transparent selection processes for Governor in Council positions. The Prime Minister has set out his expectations with respect to GiC appointments in Accountable Government – A Guide for Ministers and Ministers of State.

The guide states that "it is essential that all appointees be well qualified, and senior government appointees must be chosen through a process that ensures broad and open consideration of proposed candidates."

Further, it specifies that an important aspect of the appointment process is the desire to ensure that Governor in Council appointments reflect Canada's diversity in terms of linguistic, regional, and employment equity representation, and that all GIC appointments are subject to an assessment process and rigorous background and other checks prior to appointment.

The new RCMP commissioner will be appointed in accordance with the act and in a manner consistent with the practices introduced by the government to improve the transparency and rigour of the appointment system. This guidance was laid out for ministers in 2009 in a document entitled “A Guide to Managing the Governor in Council Appointments Process”.

Mr. Chairman, I do have a copy of the guide in both official languages that I would be pleased to provide for the committee should you so wish.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much for that.

Before we go into the first round of questioning, I would just remind everyone that we aren't here today to look back at past commissioners. We are here to look at criteria. We are here looking at the criteria and the selection process. I would ask that we keep our comments limited to the focus of what this--

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I don't think the presenter had quite completed her presentation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I'm sorry.

Please continue.

[Patricia Hassard]

I apologize, Mr. Chairman. I paused too long.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Patricia Hassard]

The guide on appointments focuses on key elements required for a rigorous process, including overall expectations and appropriate steps for recruitment to ensure the transparency of the process and to maximize access to appointments.

For context, I would like to provide you with a brief overview of the main elements of the selection process before focusing more specifically on the selection criteria for the next commissioner.

Selection processes for Governor in Council appointments are comprised of three main elements.

The first is the establishment of selection criteria to reflect the key requirements necessary for a candidate to be considered qualified for the position.

The second is the development of a recruitment strategy that outlines how candidates for the position will be sought. This can range from a basic recruitment strategy that includes posting the notice of the upcoming position on the Governor in Council appointments website and publishing it in the Canada Gazette, to a more elaborate process that includes engaging an executive search firm, implementing a national advertising strategy and, depending on the position, conducting targeted outreach to professional groups or other stakeholders.

The third is the assessment of candidates' qualifications against the established selection criteria. Normally this would involve interviews with a short-list candidates and reference checks.

For the next commissioner of the RCMP, the government has established a selection committee to steer all aspects of the search. The selection committee's role is to draft the selection criteria for this position, approve the recruitment and advertising strategy, and assess the qualifications of candidates.

The selection committee, with the assistance of an executive search firm, will conduct a national, publicly advertised, and comprehensive selection process to identify the most highly qualified candidates to lead the RCMP. They will then provide recommendations to the government.

As part of the process, the government did commit to consulting your committee on the selection criteria to be used to assess candidates for the position. Your committee's knowledge of the challenges facing the force and your views on the evolving law enforcement needs of society will be helpful to us in finalizing the selection criteria.

In closing, Mr. Chairman, the government plans to move as expeditiously as possible to recruit and select a commissioner for this important role. The selection committee has developed proposed criteria, which the minister has forwarded to you. We're here today to seek your views on these criteria. With your help, we will finalize the selection criteria and proceed with the public advertisement of the position.

We would be pleased to hear your views and to answer any questions you may have on the selection criteria for the next commissioner of the RCMP.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much.

We'll now move into the first round of questions. The first round is a seven-minute round.

We'll begin with Mr. Rathgeber, please.

[Brent Rathgeber, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Hassard and Mr. Flack, for your attendance here this afternoon and for your expertise in this process.

Ms. Hassard, you indicated towards the close of your comments that the government has committed to consulting this committee on the criteria. Is consulting with a committee of the House of Commons an unprecedented technique in terms of a selection process?

[Patricia Hassard]

I should say it's not unprecedented, but the only other case I'm aware of was in 2007, when we were looking for the current RCMP commissioner. At the time we sent draft selection criteria to the equivalent of this committee and sought their views.

[Brent Rathgeber, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Who is on the selection committee?

[Patricia Hassard]

The selection committee is composed of seven members. They have a broad range of experience that's relevant to the selection of an RCMP commissioner. We have the national security adviser to the Prime Minister, who is the chair of the selection committee; two former solicitors general in the federal system; a former RCMP commissioner; the deputy minister of Public Safety Canada; the former chair of the RCMP Reform Implementation Council; and a representative of the government from the Prime Minister's Office. As well, I'm the secretary to the committee.

[Brent Rathgeber, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Thank you.

I've had the opportunity to peruse the proposed selection criteria. I'm assuming they were drafted by your office or by the selection committee. Can you tell me briefly who had input with respect to the selection criteria? Were human resource experts consulted? Were security and policing experts consulted? Can you tell me a little bit about the genesis of the proposed selection criteria?

[Patricia Hassard]

Yes. Thank you for the question.

I think I should start with the fact that the position was last vacant four and a half years ago. For any of these significant positions, you look back at the selection criteria that were applicable at the time to see whether they need updating. I do think the selection committee was convinced that the criteria did need updating for changes in the environment.

The selection committee itself was made up of people with policing expertise, law enforcement expertise, and at least one lawyer. The human resources aspect I think came from our office, and for those individuals--

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Just one moment.

[Patricia Hassard]

I'm told that the French translation isn't working.

We're okay now? All right.

I'm sorry for the interruption. Time won't be taken away from you, Mr. Rathgeber.

You may continue.

As I was saying, the committee does have quite a broad range of expertise. The committee members are bringing a variety of perspectives to the selection of the new RCMP commissioner. Many of them have a policing or law enforcement background, and legal expertise, but all of the members of the committee also have senior management experience.

So I think they are well qualified as a committee to guide the selection process.

[Brent Rathgeber, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

In terms of the proposed selection criteria, is this a generic boilerplate model for hiring and recruiting senior members of the civil service, tailor-made to the commissioner of the RCMP, or were these criteria developed specifically for this specific recruitment and hire?

[Patricia Hassard]

Mr. Chairman, I would say that we started with the selection criteria from 2007. The selection committee did meet and it actually carefully considered each one of the requirements in the document. As you can probably guess, there were some updates to the document.

So it is not boilerplate; I would say it is tailored specifically for the needs of the organization at the time, in accordance with the views of the selection committee.

[Brent Rathgeber, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

You mentioned, toward the close of your opening comments, some timelines. What are the timelines in terms of doing this recruitment, this selection?

I understand that the current commissioner is going to be vacating that position relatively soon. What type of timeline does the committee have to select, recruit, and ultimately hire the new commissioner?

[Patricia Hassard]

The committee is on track for a nomination of a candidate, an appointment by the government, in October of 2011. This is an important process. It requires careful consideration. A thorough national search will be done. There will be an assessment to develop a short list for interviews, and then reference checks will be done after that. So it will be a very thorough process.

[Brent Rathgeber, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

If the selection is to be made in October of 2011, I'm assuming that the advertising has to go out almost immediately.

[Patricia Hassard]

Yes, that's a good assumption.

[Brent Rathgeber, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

So you're on short timelines.

[Patricia Hassard]

I think to put the selection criteria out, we should be trying to do that in the next week or two.