At the time this article was written Craig
James was Clerk Assistant of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly
Since the last report the Executive of the
Canadian Council of Public Accounts Committees held their annual midwinter
meeting in Quebec as guests of the National Assembly. It was an opportunity for
some members of the Executive to meet each other for the first time since
changes to the membership of the Executive had recently taken place.
Jean-Guy Lemieux, MNA-Quebec assumed the
position of First Vice-President of the Council. George Archibald, MLA-Nova
Scotia became the Second Vice-President when his predecessor, Dr. Colin Stewart,
was appointed Deputy Speaker of the Nova Scotia Legislature. Dr. Stewart, as
those who have been involved with Public Accounts Committees know, has been an
avid and frequent contributor to the annual CCPAC meetings and his absence from
future meetings will be felt by those who knew him. The President of the CCPAC
asked that, on behalf of the Council and through this article, the Council
express its appreciation to Dr. Stewart for his continual support and to wish
him every success in his new position as Deputy Speaker.
The mid-winter executive meeting produced a
substantial exchange of views about the Council and its relationship to each
jurisdiction. The Executive approved the agenda for their Eighth Annual meeting
which will be held in Regina from July 6-9, 1986. One issue that relates
directly to the bilingual component of this inter-provincial association is
simultaneous translation services for the annual meeting. It provoked much
frank discussion to the extent that the President of the Council was instructed
to write to the Prime Minister regarding the less than enthusiastic response
from the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat that usually
provides this service. The Prime Minister was chosen as the most appropriate
person to pursue the matter since the Secretariat is directly responsible to
the Privy Council Office. To date, no resolution of this problem, that has
plagued previous CCPAC annual meetings, has been found.
Other issues raised at the midwinter
executive meeting included Crown Corporations Committees and other post
expenditure review committees participation in the CCPAC annual meeting, a
document distribution network for the timely dissemination and storage of each
Public Accounts Committee's and CCPAC official publications, the rejection of a
CCPAC fees levy upon each jurisdiction; and a review of the CCPAC constitution
with recommendations to be submitted to the membership prior to their July 1986
annual meeting.
Looking forward to the Eighth Annual Meeting
this year in Regina, jurisdictional participation should be at an all time high
(though it is expected that EXPO 86 should take some credit for this!). For the
first time in its history the entire business sessions will be videotaped,
courtesy, Broadcasting Services of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly, for
presentation to each jurisdiction to retain for their respective Committee's
private viewing and/or rebroadcast throughout their province.
Report of Saskatchewan Committee
A recent incident in Saskatchewan will be of
particular interest to other Public Accounts Committees in Canada. The issue of
the effect of the Legislature's concurrence in a PAC report was challenged
recently when the committee presented a special report to the Legislature
respecting the Municipal Employees Superannuation Commission. In 6ssence, this
Commission, which administers $100 million of pension funds for most municipal
employees in the province was not in a position to be audited by the Provincial
Auditor. The reason, it was contended, is that in reality there are two pension
plans being administered by the Commission. However, the Commission was of the
opinion that both pension plans need only be reported to the Legislature as one
pension fund. Not since its 1982 financial statements has the Commission had an
unqualified audit by the Provincial Auditor.
Two previous Public Accounts Committee
reports to the Legislature indicated the problem expressed by the Provincial
Auditor and adopted a recommendation that, essentially, both MESC pension funds
should be reported separately. As part of its sixth and seventh report covering
two separate sessions of the Twentieth Legislature the Committee's
recommendations were concurred in by the House.
The conflict between the Assembly and one of
its Committees and an agency which reports to the Assembly should be of special
concern to each Legislature in Canada. The consequences are, indeed, profound
and the arguments political, philosophical and legal in relation to the effect
of a Committee's recommendation upon the organization so affected.
At first the Municipal Employees
Superannuation Commission chose to follow its counsel's legal opinion that
concurrence by the House is not binding, but that since the House is merely
concurring in a recommendation as opposed to a direction, the government and,
indeed itself, need not act in accordance with the recommendation unless it
wishes to.
However on May 1, 1986, the Commission
reappeared before the Committee to present a status report on corrective
measures it had undertaken. The Public Accounts Committee was gratified to
learn that the Commission had complied with the recommendation included in the
Special Report to the Assembly. The Commission tabled, in the Committee, a
sample financial statement format to be applied to their particular
circumstances that corresponded to the kind of financial information the
Auditor needs to complete his audit.