Mr. Speaker, on October 18 I asked the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration about the troubling selection process for the chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board.
So many times well connected Liberals are appointed to positions of power and prominence in this country. I implore the minister to involve parliamentarians, specifically committee members, in this selection process. Parliamentarians have a mandate to represent and work on behalf of their constituents. How can Canadians be adequately represented when appointments are fait accompli by the time MPs are informed?
I refer specifically to the appointment of Mr. Peter Showler. He was appointed chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board by an order in council dated November 16, 1999. First, I applaud the appointment. Mr. Showler is duly qualified to take on the daunting task of chair of the IRB, a quasi-judicial post.
Despite that, the issue I have is one of principle. Why was the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration not consulted? Allow me to refer to Standing Order 108(2) which mentions additional powers of standing committees. It says that the standing committees will be empowered:
—to study and report on all matters relating to the mandate, management and operation of the department or departments of government which are assigned to them—
Standing Order 108(2)(e) widens the powers of the committee to investigate:
—other matters, relating to the mandate, management, organization or operation of the department, as the committee deems fit.
Is the appointment of the IRB chair deemed to be not crucial to the administration of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration?
Standing Order 111 allows for the review of the appointment. Reviews are fine but do not allow the committee members any authority over the hiring in the first place.
Standing committees are intimately familiar with the issues and would be an excellent source of advice for an appointment as chair of the IRB. Even if it were a bad review it would not necessarily lead to the dismissal of an appointee.
I fear the committees, and indeed the House itself, are becoming rubber stamps for policies and motions already approved and formulated by the Privy Council Office and the Prime Minister's Office.
The House is consulted less and less by government but I remind the governing party that 38.5% of voting Canadians in the 1997 election supported it. That is far less than the majority. By not consulting with the House of Commons, the voices of a vast majority of Canadians are not being heard. This is not the correct practice in a liberal democracy like Canada's.
Committee members are powerless over anything the Prime Minister and cabinet wish to do. It is interesting to note that the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Council for Refugees are both on record as disapproving the present selection process. They want a more fair, more transparent hiring process.
The next time an order in council appointment is made, will the minister exercise some democracy, take the high road and consult the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration?