Watchdog terms extended, applications sought
OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau is extending the terms of the federal ethics and lobbying watchdogs by another six months and relaunching the application process to find their replacements.
It’s the third time the prime minister has given six-month extensions to ethics commissioner Mary Dawson and lobbying commissioner Karen Shepherd, both of whom were scheduled to leave their posts within weeks.
The move underscores the difficulty the government has had in finding replacements for officers of Parliament, the watchdogs who are supposed to provide independent oversight over such matters as federal elections, government spending, ethics, lobbying, linguistic duality and access to information.
And it comes on the heels of Trudeau’s failed nomination of Madeleine Meilleur, a Liberal partisan and former Ontario cabinet minister, to the post of official languages commissioner.
Meilleur withdrew her nomination Wednesday after weeks of controversy over her partisan ties to the government she was supposed to hold to account and amid opposition complaints that they weren’t consulted, as legally required for an officer of Parliament.
A senior government source told the Canadian Press that Trudeau will send letters next week to opposition leaders, asking them what stakeholders they want consulted about the next ethics and lobbying commissioners, while urging them to encourage potential candidates to apply.
The government posted online Friday a new “notice of opportunity,” inviting applications for the two posts.
In the meantime, Privy Council Office spokesman Paul Duchesne confirmed that Dawson and Shepherd, whose terms were originally supposed to expire a year ago, have agreed to serve until the end of this year.
The term of information commissioner Suzanne Legault, which was to end this month, has been extended until the end of the year.