Political Candidacy Request - Questionnaire for Supervisors or Managers: Nature of Duties
Questionnaire for Supervisors or Managers: Nature of Duties
Context
Political activities by federal employees are subject to the provisions of Part 7 of the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA). Employees must obtain the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) permission before seeking nomination and being a candidate for a federal, provincial, territorial or municipal election. In reviewing and analysing requests for permission, the PSC must consider such factors as the nature of the election, the nature of the employee’s duties, and the level and visibility of the employee’s position, together with the heightened public activity and visibility that running for and/or sitting as an elected official would entail.
Instructions for the Employee
Please have your supervisor or manager answer the questions below (section 3). The completed questionnaire is to be forwarded to the Public Service Commission (PSC) with your Basic Information Form, a completed Deputy Head's Input Form and approved work description and approved organizational chart. The organizational chart must show your position, your supervisor’s position and positions reporting to you, where applicable. A copy of your completed questionnaire must also be sent to the Departmental Political Activities Designate for your organization whose name you will find at
http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/psea-lefp/political/political_contacts_e.htm.
Instructions for the Supervisor or the Manager
It is critical to provide the PSC with a comprehensive picture of your employee’s public service duties. Please insert your answers after each question or indicate if the question is not relevant. Though some of the questions may invite short answers, we ask that you be sufficiently specific and complete in order to minimize the need for follow-up with you. Please sign and date the completed questionnaire and give a copy of it to your employee to be attached to his or her Basic Information Form. Please also indicate if you have attached additional sheets.
Please consult http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/psea-lefp/political/index_e.htm for more information on the provisions of the PSEA, the employees’ obligations and the PSC’s role.
I. Supervisor or Manager
- Name
- Classification
- Position Title
- Location of place of work
- Telephone number and e-mail address
II. Employee
- Name
- Position Title
- Position Number
- Classification
- Tenure
- Position Location
- Division, Directorate, Branch
- Nature of election
- Federal
- Provincial
- Territorial
- Municipal
- Elected office sought
- Date by which the PSC’s decision is required
III. Questions for Supervisor or Manager
A. The nature of your employee's duties:
1. If this employee is also acting in another position or is on assignment or secondment to other duties, please indicate the title, group and level, location and the nature of those other duties. Please specify the start and expected expiration dates of those responsibilities and the appropriate supervisor’s name, title, work address and telephone number.
2. Please list, in point form, the main duties and principal activities (usually between 4 and 8) for which the employee is responsible. Is the work description to be provided with the employee’s request an accurate reflection of the job? Does it describe any work that is not actually or currently performed? If so, please clarify his or her actual duties. Please ensure that any interactions with residents and/or the electorate in the election area are clearly explained.
3. Please describe with whom this employee would typically deal on a daily and weekly basis, both within the federal public service and outside: frequency and type of contact, what proportion of the time these contacts represent.
4. To what degree are the employee’s duties and responsibilities sensitive? For example, would there be, at any time, a direct impact on national security, health and safety of individuals, financial implications for individuals or groups, or services being provided to the community? Please frame your comments with special reference to, but not limited to, the area of election.
5. In the course of his or her work, does this employee deal with local elected officials in the area of election, whether at the federal, provincial, territorial or municipal level? If yes, please state the frequency and nature of these contacts.
B. Your employee’s position in the organization
6. List the job titles, incumbents’ names and their levels, between the employee’s position and that of the organization’s Deputy Head (or Agency President, CEO, etc.) and their locations.
7. In what manner is this employee’s work supervised, by whom and at what classification level(s)?
8. Does this employee usually work alone or as part of a team? How many similar positions are there in this team? In the organization?
9. What is the employee’s level of autonomy and decision making respecting assigned files and work? What is your role as the supervisor in this regard?
10. Are the duties of this employee unique or are there other persons who do the same kind of work and, if so, how many? Could elements of this employee’s work be assigned to others if necessary to ensure the perception of impartiality during the election period or after election, or to accommodate civic duties if elected?
11. What is this person’s role in policy development? Would this affect the residents of the jurisdiction in which the person seeks election?
12. What is this employee’s involvement, level and frequency of contact with your Minister or other federal cabinet ministers?
13. Is this employee a supervisor? If so, how many federal employees does he or she supervise?
- a. What authority and decision making does this person have regarding the hiring and firing of temporary and contract employees and does that affect persons who are residents of the electoral area?
- b. Does this person ever supervise the work of individuals who are not federal employees? If so, what is the status of these individuals and what is the nature of their work? Are any of them officials who represent the geographical area of election or are they residents or officials of businesses located in or operating in the area of election?
14. Does the employee have budget responsibilities and official signing authority to spend money? Please provide details.
15. In the employee’s current job, is there a responsibility for approving or recommending the approval of government contracts, subsidies, grants, contributions, community programs or other programs or financial transactions? Please provide details.
16. What level of authority or decision making does this employee have in contracts and dealing with outside contractors? Does the employee have a role or influence in the hiring, evaluation or firing contractors? Are the contracts with persons who reside in the election area?
C. The visibility of your employee’s position
17. Describe the extent to which this employee is visible to the public and if the employee has direct dealings with the public. If so, please describe how the contacts are made, their purpose and frequency.
18. Does this employee give presentations to groups or appear before committees or other bodies inside or outside government? If so, please describe this aspect of the work.
19. Is the employee involved in any work that includes persons or businesses located in the electoral area or persons who reside there? If so, please specify the nature, frequency, and extent of the employee’s actual or potential involvement as an employee.
20. Are there businesses, suppliers or other companies with which this employee deals as an employee and with which he or she might also have dealings as an elected official? Please describe the nature of these companies and the frequency of contact this employee will have with them, if elected.
21. Does this employee have any responsibilities related to law enforcement?
- a. If so, is this individual a peace officer? Please provide specifics.
- b. Is this employee required to appear in court? If so, please provide details about the court(s), in what capacity this person would appear, frequency of such appearances?
22. Does this employee deal with public communications media (newspapers, reporters, television, etc.)? If so, in what manner, in what capacity, and with what frequency and for what purpose?
23. Is he or she involved in conducting audits? If so, please outline the type and frequency of audit, and this employee’s role.
D. Municipal elections
24. Does the employee’s job involve any dealings with municipal authorities, either elected or non-elected? Are those authorities in the electoral area where the employee wishes to run? In either event, please describe the nature of those dealings, the purpose, level of contacts.
25. If your employee is elected, can he or she continue to work in duties currently assigned as a public servant while also serving as an elected municipal official? In this situation, do you believe that his or her political impartiality will be impaired or will be perceived as being impaired? If you have concerns, please explain and specify any operational or other accommodations, if any, that could be made to alleviate your concerns.
If you expressed concern in answering this question, would your concern be alleviated if the employee was required to take a leave of absence without pay while performing the duties of an elected official? Upon return from leave at the end of his or her elected mandate, would additional actions need to be taken to counteract a risk of perceptions of lack of impartiality if he or she returns to their regular public service duties?
26. How likely is it that this council will deal with issues that affect the interests of the department / agency?
27. As an elected official, this employee may sit on a number of committees. What problems, if any, might involvement with these committees present in terms of potential conflict or the perception of a lack of impartiality? Do these committees include work for a higher level of government (e.g. sitting on the council, or board, of a higher level government such as a regional municipality or township, or on committees of same.)
28. The elected office that this employee is seeking may require a significant time commitment on the part of the elected official. Please inform us of any issues you foresee, including the impact on your operations and the employee’s work as an employee that this time commitment will cause; whether accommodation or alternative arrangements would be possible/feasible.
E. Elected office and a politically impartial public service
29. During the time this employee will be running as a candidate for election, are you satisfied that this employee’s ability to perform public service duties in a politically impartial manner will not be impaired or perceived as being impaired? If you have any concerns, please specify any operational or other accommodations that could be made to alleviate any issues. Would those concerns be alleviated if the employee was required to take a leave of absence without pay during the election period? If so, please explain.
30. If this employee runs as a candidate, is not elected, and then returns to work, are you satisfied that his or her ability to perform public service duties in a politically impartial manner will not be impaired or perceived as being impaired? If you have concerns, please specify any operational or other accommodations that could be made to alleviate any issues.
31. Please provide any additional comments you have on the visibility, influence and discretionary power inherent in this employee’s work that might be relevant to his or her seeking elected office.
IV. Affirmation
I, the undersigned, have filled this questionnaire to the best of my knowledge. I attest that all the answers that I have provided are accurate to the best of my knowledge and are a true representation of this employee’s responsibilities and interactions in the performance of these duties. I understand that I may be contacted by the PSC to provide further information or details to assist in reviewing the request for permission to seek nomination and/or request a leave of absence without pay for the purpose of the election mentioned in this questionnaire.
Name (print)
Signature
Date
Privacy Act
The information you provide will be used by the Public Service Commission (PSC) to review a request for permission to seek nomination as, or be, a candidate in an election and for statistical purposes. It is collected under the authority of the Public Service Employment Act and is protected under the Privacy Act. The information you provide will be retained in the PCE 763 Information Bank of the PSC. The information will be kept for at least seven years unless you consent to have it destroyed earlier. You can have access to the information about yourself and can ask for corrections to your file or add annotations to it. You have the right to review and correct information about yourself and can be assured that it will not be used for unauthorized purposes. To obtain more information, please consult INFO SOURCE.
