Document Information

Date: 1988-08-31
By: Canada (Parliament)
Citation: Canada, House of Commons Debates, 32nd Parl, 2nd Sess, 1988 at 19125.
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MEMBERS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF COMMONS CONFLICT OF INTEREST ACT

MEASURE TO ENACT

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Mr. Lewis: One should know that government appointments to agencies, boards, commissions and foreign service postings, are the exclusive prerogative of the Prime Minister, as they have been in the past. There has been no change in that system. The Government in Council appointments involve some 2,613 jobs on government agencies, boards and commissions. That is 1.1 per cent of the total Public Service population of some 231,000. Of the 2,613 appointments to these agencies, boards and commissions, only 377 are full-time jobs.
Therefore, the Prime Minister of Canada, whether it is the present Prime Minister or past Prime Minister, has the authority to appoint 0.2 per cent of the number of full-time public servants. It is not as though that is all a Prime Minister spends his or her time doing.

I could review for the House a list of outstanding appointments, but I just want to refer to the last two. The last two appointments are the appointment of Yves Fortier to be the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations—

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