Liberals paid $77K in search for languages czar
Meilleur recused herself after nomination
As part of the much-scrutinized process that led to Madeleine Meilleur being nominated as Canada’s official languages commissioner this spring, the federal government spent almost $77,000 on a headhunting firm, part of more than $2 million spent on “executive search” services this year alone.
Much-delayed ethics, lobbying and information commissioner positions are also being supported by such services, the government has confirmed.
An Ottawa headhunting firm was just one cog in what many viewed as a botched appointment. It all started just before the previous official languages commissioner, Graham Fraser, resigned after a decade on the job.
The first day of December, the government’s appointments website announced it was accepting applications. On Dec. 19, an interim commissioner took over.
The deadline for applications was set for Jan. 9, exactly six months after Meilleur resigned as Attorney General of Ontario. The Ottawa-area MPP had previously served as the provincial minister responsible for francophone affairs.
Meilleur would later tell a Commons official languages committee that she spoke to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, and principal secretary, Gerry Butts, during the time she was deciding whether to apply — though she stressed the conversations weren’t specifically about the job.
Meanwhile, a headhunting firm, Boyden Ottawa, was offered a $76,967 contract on Jan. 20.
Sometime in the following couple of months, Boyden undertook psychometric testing of candidates (a psychological evaluation sometimes undertaken with candidates for senior government positions), according to a government response to an order paper question tabled this week.
Another response says Meilleur got the call she was being nominated on April 26.
This was publicly announced May 15 and, given Meilleur’s longtime position in the Ontario Liberal government, Trudeau faced immediate criticism that the appointment was a partisan one.
A La Presse report suggests that others who were in the running for the position were shocked by the announcement. Several told La Presse that Boyden had apologized to them because the firm hadn’t been prenotified of the government’s choice either.
By early June, Meilleur succumbed to mounting political pressure and recused herself from the position with a letter to Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly. (It had turned out that two of Joly’s staff used to work for Meilleur.)
The interim commissioner, longtime public servant Ghislaine Saikaley, still warms the seat and an application page for the position said a review of applications was to start last week.
As Trudeau faces criticism for stalling on other major appointments, including the ethics, lobbying and information commissioners, these hirings, too, are being “assisted” by headhunting, confirmed Paul Duchesne, a spokesman for the Privy Council Office.
“Selection processes for certain full-time leadership positions, including Agents of Parliament such as the Commissioner of Official Languages, require a more comprehensive approach and are typically supported by an executive search firm,” he said in an emailed response to questions.
Ethics commissioner Mary Dawson and lobbying commissioner Karen Shepherd are both still acting in their roles about 15 months after their appointments were supposed to wrap up.
Nearly a year ago, on Oct. 26, Boyden was hired on a $201,140-contract to help replace them.
Information commissioner Suzanne Legault announced in April she will resign whenever a successor is chosen. About a week later, the PCO secured a $63,236 contract with Boyden.
A review of candidates for all three positions was supposed to have started in July, but the government has not yet announced any decisions.
In February 2016, Trudeau announced a new “open, transparent, and merit-based selection process,” including an application process, for appointments to the government’s approximate 2,000 governor-in-council positions.
A look through the government’s proactive disclosure site for contracts associated with “executive search” services shows dozens of agreements with several headhunting companies, including Boyden, across government departments.
It is not clear how many of the contracts are associated with governor-in-council appointments.
Listings that include contracts up to May show at least $2 million in such services were procured by government departments and agencies in 2017 alone.