This is from the auditor general's report. It states:
There is a need for better director training...Appointment decisions are not timely. In one Crown corporation 80 percent of the directors have continued in expired positions for over a year, and the chair position is vacant.
There is a board that continued with expired positions and no chair. Again it is a sign of lack of governance. The report continues as follows:
Chair appointments [are] often made with limited board consultation.
Each crown corporation has an audit committee. The report goes into the effectiveness of the audit committees. It states:
Half of the audit committees we examined were considered ineffective or only marginally effective...only one followed most of the best practices and was performing effectively;—
That was one out of 13 crown corporations. The report states:
The deficiencies in corporate plans undermine Crown corporation accountability...Many Crown corporations receive little or no feedback on their corporate plans from their responsible minister.
In fact there is supposed to be a direct correlation and a direct reporting back and forth. It goes on and on, stating that further improvement is needed in some important areas of crown corporation management, like strategic and corporate planning, that is, the basics, and the measurement and reporting of performance. Boards lack essential skills and capabilities that are required to effectively carry out their role. The government needs to meaningfully involve boards in their own renewal.
The report states that the auditors found “deficiencies” in many government approved corporate plans and “a limited capacity” in government to challenge those plans as a basis for their approval.
I could go on because the report is full of this. I just selected some highlights.
We have some amendments to the bill which we will propose in committee. We will focus on the governance issues as the auditor general did.
The bill proposes to separate the positions of chair of the board of directors and president of the Canadian Commercial Corporation. That makes sense. It should have been done a long time ago. We would like to add some requirements and will be proposing amendments at committee.
First, we would like to see a requirement that a majority of the board members has expertise relevant to the business of the corporation. It makes sense. It probably will not happen because it makes sense. However, it makes sense and we think the board members should know something about what they are talking about. They should have some experience and knowledge of the board of which they are a member. Second, we suggest that we should reduce the number of board members given that the chairperson is an added position. By adding a new chair, we should take one member off the board.
Third, we will ask for the requirement of the appointment of a president and chair to follow up consultations with the board. This will ensure that the board's directions are followed, which is not currently the case, as related in the auditor general's report. Fourth, we think that we should strike the clause that would allow the borrowing capacity of the corporation to be increased by a supply bill. We will be addressing all these issues when the bill gets to committee.
Again, this is an important crown corporation. It works with the EDC and the Business Development Corporation to help our small and medium size companies export and do business with governments in 30 countries around the world. We support the institution, but we want some changes made in the governance of the institution and in the process.