Fill these positions
News that the Trudeau government has accumulated a daunting backlog of appointments to Crown corporations, appeal tribunals and other public agencies might not immediately stir the passions. But it’s cause for real concern.
Canada is currently without a chief electoral officer. Our official languages commissioner, the commissioner of lobbying and conflict of interest, and the ethics commissioner are all serving on an interim basis.
More than half the seats on the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, which hears complaints from vets denied benefits, are empty. As are a third of the seats on the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board and a quarter on the Social Security Tribunal, which adjudicates disputes over employment insurance, pension benefits and other welfare payouts.
Some 35 per cent of governor in council (GIC) appointments are now vacant or past their expiry, raising concerns about the ability of important parts of government to serve Canadians effectively.
The issue came to light in October when CBC News reported that nearly 20 per cent of the more than 1,500 GIC appointments had yet to be filled. At the time, Liberals said the delay was the inevitable result of the government’s decision to overhaul the appointment process. The Liberals said they had spent months developing an open, merit-based system. Now that it was in place, appointments were being made and the backlog would soon be gone.
Five months later, it has almost doubled. The results are invisible to most Canadians, but felt acutely by those directly affected.
Take the example of the Social Security Tribunal, which the auditor general has repeatedly rebuked for failing to hear appeals in a timely manner. Many of the people who file complaints with the tribunal are in dire financial situations. But even when the body is fully staffed, appeals regularly take more than a year.
The government’s phlegmatic approach to appointments is not limited to governor in council positions. There are currently 57 vacancies for federally appointed judges, contributing to the growing crisis of court delays. In this case, too, the problem seems to have stemmed from a good-faith effort to improve a flawed appointment system.
The process for picking judges and GIC appointees has too often been opaque and unaccountable, seemingly favouring the loyal over the meritorious. The effort to find a merit-based alternative that better reflects our country’s diversity is welcome. But in trying to correct one problem, the Liberal government has created another, equally troubling one.
In the United Kingdom, the commissioner of public appointments watches over ministerial nominations for public positions, ensuring that choices are fair and made in a timely fashion. Stephen Harper promised a similar mechanism, but walked away. Given our persistent problems with this process, we may want to revisit that idea.
In the meantime, the government should not allow perfect to be the enemy of good. It should move quickly to fill the empty benches, boards and tribunals, lest these important gears of our democracy grind to a halt.
The Trudeau government should move quickly to fill empty public boards and tribunals