There is another significant step towards better governance in Alberta with the release today of the Premier’s Task Force on Agencies Boards and Commissions. These groups, largely appointed, spend about half of the annual operational budget of the province so they are not insignificant.
There is a full report on line- suffice to say the Premier has accepted 14 of the 15 recommendations and the other one was modified. That recommendation modification was that no elected or senior government officials should be appointed to governing bodies of agencies. The modification was to acknowledge that sometimes. Given the mandate of an agency it is helpful to have elected or senior government officials input.
I see the quibble but such political or administrative input can be obtained very easily without elected or senior government officials being officially appointed to the agency, board or commission. These various groups are formed mostly to get independent and sometimes expert advice (like the Hunter Expert Panel on the Royalty Review) and to take politics and bureaucratic culture out of the deliberations and decision or recommendation making. Having bureaucrats and MLAs appointed and directly in the decision making process tends to undermine that larger and important goal.
The other recommendation that will be the media focus on is going to be on “a competency-based appointment process.” That will be interpreted as code to not just appointing the party faithful. Competency is paramount but it does not eliminate partisanship in appointments. Nor should it. Everything being equal, any government is going to appoint like-minded people to agencies board and commissions because they want alignment with government policy directions and goals. Competency is the first test; pedigree will still be the second test – regardless of which party is forming government.
“Diversity of Appointments” recommendation to reflect the diverse nature of the Alberta population is a great step forward.
Good governance and transparency are in desperate need of policy and political attention in ALberta. This positive response by Stelmach to the recommendations of the Agencies, Boards and Commissions Governance Task Force is one more way Stelmach is getting it done.
There is a full report on line- suffice to say the Premier has accepted 14 of the 15 recommendations and the other one was modified. That recommendation modification was that no elected or senior government officials should be appointed to governing bodies of agencies. The modification was to acknowledge that sometimes. Given the mandate of an agency it is helpful to have elected or senior government officials input.
I see the quibble but such political or administrative input can be obtained very easily without elected or senior government officials being officially appointed to the agency, board or commission. These various groups are formed mostly to get independent and sometimes expert advice (like the Hunter Expert Panel on the Royalty Review) and to take politics and bureaucratic culture out of the deliberations and decision or recommendation making. Having bureaucrats and MLAs appointed and directly in the decision making process tends to undermine that larger and important goal.
The other recommendation that will be the media focus on is going to be on “a competency-based appointment process.” That will be interpreted as code to not just appointing the party faithful. Competency is paramount but it does not eliminate partisanship in appointments. Nor should it. Everything being equal, any government is going to appoint like-minded people to agencies board and commissions because they want alignment with government policy directions and goals. Competency is the first test; pedigree will still be the second test – regardless of which party is forming government.
“Diversity of Appointments” recommendation to reflect the diverse nature of the Alberta population is a great step forward.
Good governance and transparency are in desperate need of policy and political attention in ALberta. This positive response by Stelmach to the recommendations of the Agencies, Boards and Commissions Governance Task Force is one more way Stelmach is getting it done.
Typical media response to the story. Not "government adopted essentially all of the recommendations" or "government adopted 14 of 15 recommendations", but instead "government rejected key recommendation to ..."
ReplyDeleteSheesh.
Maybe Klein did have it right. Govern by decree without outside independent output. Or muscle an "independent" board to get the results you want. Stelmach sure doesn't seem to get credit for doing the right thing. From the spin the media puts on it, government should immediately implement ALL recommendations from independent panels... of course, the story would then be about how government abdicated its responsibility to make decisions.
See? Easy, I should work for the paper - this stuff writes itself.
Another partisan task force which promotes a compromise position. And Stelmach rejects some recommendations...again.
ReplyDeleteWhy does Stelmach bother with these task forces if he rejects the recommendations?
Stelmach says he is putting quality people on these task forces. If that is true then why not repect their judgment?
I don't get this premier. And frankly, I don't want this premier.
proud albertan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for brilliantly illustrating my point. Task forces are there to give recommendations, not to implement policy. I can recommend you go to Hawaii this winter (and give all sorts of reason why e.g low US$), but you are not forced to go.
And to what "partisan" task force are you referring? These are all individual citizens, just like the Alberta Royalty Review Panel.
As I recall, the Alberta Liberals and the Alberta NDP pilloried the panel members for being in the pockets of big business ... that is, until they saw a political opportunity to back the recommendations the panel proposed (that would be the "panel in the pockets").
There is a great deal of ignorance about how we go about governance in our society. I don't mean that as some kind of "shot" at people's capacity or intellectual ability.
ReplyDeleteI wish to merely point out that there is a whole bunch of stuff about how government works that is easy to access and to be better informed about - if we took the time and the interest to educate ourselves.
We seem to be very facile about politics because that mostly rests on opinion - and too often that opinion that is unburdened by any adherence to facts.
Governing is different than politics and that is where the lack of awareness seems to persist for many people.
It is a serious problem if we are to re-engage as citizens in our civic life. For those who only see the world as a political battleground of winner and losers - this education is unnecessary
For those interested in the larger processes of making collective decisions for the common good this education would be invaluable.
For those who are interested in how we deicide what values, principles and perceptions we bring to bear on policy decision and our governance task, this education would also be invaluable.
I recently learned that we have people making careers out of sitting on government boards like pdd. And since those boards are considered an arm of the government they cannot advocate or lobby. Is that true? Will that change now?
ReplyDelete