Journals of the Senate
58 Elizabeth II, A.D. 2009, Canada
Journals of the Senate
(Unrevised)
2nd Session, 40th Parliament
Issue 35 - Appendix
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
1:30 p.m.
The Honourable Noël A. Kinsella, Speaker
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Standing Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament has the honour to present its
FOURTH REPORT
Pursuant to a reference from the Senate of April 21, 2009, and rule 86(1)(f)(ii), your committee is pleased to report as follows:
On March 26, 2009, the Hon. James S. Cowan, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, raised on a question of privilege in the Senate Chamber. Senator Cowan argued that the following passage, then posted on the Government of Canada website entitled Canada's Economic Action Plan (actionplan.gc.ca), infringed upon his privileges as a senator:
Many of the vital investments in Canada's Economic Action Plan are contained in the Budget Implementation Act, 2009.
While the House of Commons has passed this legislation, the Senate must still approve the Act for it to become law. Senators must do their part and ensure quick passage of this vital legislation.
While this statement asserted that the Senate had still to act upon the Budget Implementation Act, 2009, the Senate had, in fact, adopted this legislative proposal two weeks earlier on March 12, 2009. As a matter of fact, the Budget Implementation Act, 2009, or Bill C-10, as it then was, had been introduced and received first reading in the Senate on March 4, 2009, and was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance the next day.
On March 10, 2009, during the appearance of the Hon. Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, and departmental officials, members of the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance were told that the provisions of Bill C-10 aimed at extending the employment insurance benefits from 45 to 50 weeks would come into force only once Bill C-10 received Royal Assent and apply to the then-pending claims (with retroactive effect on its implementation day). Therefore, every day that Bill C-10 stood unenacted before Parliament, Canadians were losing employment insurance benefits. Faced with such a situation, the Senate decided to act promptly and Bill C-10 received Royal Assent on March 12, 2009, as S.C. 2009, c. 2. Nonetheless, when Senator Cowan raised his question of privilege on March 26, 2009, the actionplan.gc.ca website indicated that the Senate had still not adopted Bill C-10.
On March 31, 2009, the Speaker ruled that no prima facie question of privilege had been established. However, that decision was not sustained on appeal and the matter was referred to your committee on April 1, 2009, for consideration and report.
On April 28, 2009, Mr. Laurent Marcoux, Acting Director General of Operations, Communications & Consultations, Privy Council Office, appeared before your committee. At the outset of his appearance and throughout his testimony, Mr. Marcoux expressed his deepest and sincere regrets for this error for which, he asserted, he was responsible. He explained to your committee that the website was initially hosted by the Department of Finance, but had been launched anew by the Privy Council Office on March 11, 2009, following the tabling of the Canada's Economic Action Plan — A First Report to Canadians. Mr. Marcoux explained that he had been informed of the erroneous statement on the evening of March 26, 2009, and that the appropriate correction had been made to the website that very night. He also explained to your committee the measures that had been taken to remedy the situation. In this regard, a page-by-page review was undertaken to verify accuracy of the content of the website. Since then, his web team now completes a daily review of the content of the website and all time sensitive materials are identified to ensure that verification of the accuracy of the content is done on an ongoing basis.
Your committee accepts the apologies from Mr. Marcoux in respect of the operational error.
Your committee is satisfied that the measures taken since March 26, 2009, constitute an appropriate remedy and that such an incident, where an erroneous statement is posted, is unlikely to happen again. Your committee understands that the personnel of the Privy Council Office may not have been sufficiently well prepared when the responsibility to manage the actionplan.gc.ca website was transferred to the Privy Council Office, which, as Mr. Marcoux indicated in his testimony, does not usually manage such websites. In this respect, your committee notes with satisfaction that it has been informed by Mr. Marcoux that a learning plan, which will include a course module on the role of the Senate and an information session on the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, is being developed for his personnel.
It is nonetheless deeply regrettable that this inaccurate information remained on the actionplan.gc.ca website for more than two weeks. Moreover, your committee underlines that this erroneous information could have been removed earlier from the website. Indeed, on March 25, 2009, the erroneous statement was referred to during the proceedings of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, where the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance was in attendance. Later that day, a news report aired on CTV National News also mentioned the erroneous statement. Your committee expects that should a similar situation presents itself again, the appropriate correction will be effected promptly. Your committee notes that, while the erroneous information was removed, no notice of correction or apology was posted to explain the error or the change.
Even more troubling, however, is that the statement from the actionplan.gc.ca website was not just inaccurate; it was also an affront to the Senate. The Constitution Act, 1867 established the Parliament of Canada, which is constituted of three components: the Queen, the Senate and the House of Commons. All must agree before a legislative proposal becomes an Act of Parliament. The Senate benefits from the necessary immunities, privileges and powers to discharge its legislative functions unimpeded by any external body. The statement that ``Senators must do their part and ensure quick passage of this vital legislation'' is at odds with the autonomy and independence of the Senate. The Senate cannot be coerced to adopt a legislative proposal or to adopt it in a given timeframe. In addition, this partisan rhetoric on a Government of Canada website put the public service into an untenable position where its non-partisanship, political neutrality and impartiality are placed in jeopardy.
Your committee finds this unacceptable terminology offensive to the authority, dignity and privileges of the Senate, and concludes that it needs to be remedied.
Therefore, your committee recommends:
1. That a comprehensive review of the actionplan.gc.ca website be undertaken with the view to remove not only factual errors, but also any statement that may affect the non-partisanship, political neutrality and impartiality of the public service;
2. That the Clerk of the Privy Council take every step necessary to convey to all responsible mangers:
(a) the non-partisanship, political neutrality and impartiality of the public service; and
(b) the institutional role of the Senate.
3. That the conclusions learned in this matter be communicated strongly to all responsible managers of Government of Canada websites.
Respectfully submitted,
DONALD H. OLIVER
Chair