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If It Ain't Broken, Stop Trying to Fix It: Why the Doctrine of Ministerial

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If It Ain't Broken, Stop Trying to Fix It: Why the Doctrine of Ministerial If it ain’t broken, stop trying to fix it: Why the doctrine of ministerial accountability still works By Scott D. Millar, B.A., B.A.H. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario Canada © Scott D. Millar 2005 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 0-494-10061-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 0-494-10061-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce,Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve,sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet,distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform,et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be includedBien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. i * i Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT A number of critics suggest that the doctrine of ministerial accountability is broken when it is not. This has led to repeated and ill-conceived calls for scrapping the doctrine altogether in favour of a system that requires ministers to be accountable to Parliament for policy matters related to their departmental portfolios and for public servants to be separately accountable for administration. Citing the HRDC grants and contributions affair as an example, this paper suggests that despite modem realities the doctrine is still relevant for ensuring the accountability of government. The doctrine needs only to be better understood and consistently applied in order to remain effective. It demands that ministers, supported by their officials, be solely responsible for correcting administrative errors that occur within their departments, and that they provide related information to Parliament and Canadians. The doctrine solves problems of administration and sets in place processes to prevent future errors. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: FOUNDATIONS OF MINISTERIAL ACCOUNTABILITY............... 10 Historical Foundations .................................................................................................. 10 The Origins o f Responsible Government.................................................................. 10 The Rise o f the Public Service.................................................................................. 15 Theoretical Foundations ................................................................................................ 18 Responsible Government.......................................................................................... 18 Ministerial Responsibility......................................................................................... 18 a) Collective Ministerial Responsibility...........................................................19 b) Individual Ministerial Responsibility.......................................................... 21 c) Permanent and Anonymous Public Service................................................. 24 Summary.......................................................................................................................28 CHAPTER 2: UNDERSTANDING MINISTERIAL ACCOUNTABILITY................ 29 Meaning of Accountability...........................................................................................29 How is a Minister Accountable?................................................................................... 33 Sanctioning o f Ministers...........................................................................................34 Answerability o f Ministers........................................................................................37 Summary....................................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 3: CANADIAN SYSTEM OF MINISTERIAL ACCOUNTABILITY...... 43 Key Accountability Actors...........................................................................................43 Ministers...................................................................................................................43 Deputy Ministers.......................................................................................................48 Key Accountability Support Mechanisms....................................................................55 Parliament................................................................................................................. 55 Question Period........................................................................................................ 57 Public Accounts Committee and the Auditor General.............................................. 58 Role o f the Media...................................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 4: SOME CHALLENGES TO ENSURING ACCOUNTABILITY............64 Complexity of Government.......................................................................................... 64 Performance Measurement ...........................................................................................68 Auditor General Activities ............................................................................................71 The Media ..................................................................................................................... 74 Role of Parliament ........................................................................................................ 75 Parliamentary Committees............................................................................................ 78 Public Accounts Committee .........................................................................................82 CHAPTER 5: SPLITTING ACCOUNTABILITIES BETWEEN MINISTERS AND DEPUTY MINISTERS.................................................................................................... 85 Past Efforts to Make Public Servants Directly Accountable to Parliament.................. 86 Reasons Posed for Splitting Accountabilities ...............................................................93 Addressing the Realities o f a Complex Government.................................................93 Addressing the Realities o f the Minister-Deputy Minister Relationship.................. 96 Protecting Public Servants.......................................................................................97 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Why Accountabilities should not be Split.................................................................... 98 Is the British ‘Accounting Officer’ Model Applicable? ..............................................104 Ministerial Instruction: An Option for Reform ............................................................110 Summary......................................................................................................................115 CHAPTER 6: THE HRDC GRANTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS AFFAIR: A CASE FOR MINISTERIAL A CCOUNTBILITY.....................................................................117 The Affair.....................................................................................................................117 The Role of a Minister Who Stood Accountable .........................................................123 Summary......................................................................................................................126 CONCLUSION A WAY FORWARD FOR MINISTERIAL ACCOUNTABILITY.... 132 Reforming Supporting Mechanisms ............................................................................132 The Need to Maintain the
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