Treasury Board
The Treasury Board is the central agency that reviews and approves spending by the Government of Canada.[1]
Role[edit]
The Canadian Cabinet is arranged into several committees with varying responsibilities, but all other ones are informal structures and frequently change. The Treasury Board is the only one created by law (currently organised under the Financial Administration Act[2]), and is officially a committee of the Privy Council. Its role in government makes it far more powerful than most Cabinet committees as it is responsible for "accountability and ethics, financial, personnel and administrative management, comptrollership, approving regulations and most Orders-in-Council".[3] It is also unique in that its committee chair, the President of the Treasury Board, is a member of cabinet by virtue of holding that office—other cabinet committees are chaired by minister holding seats in cabinet by virtue of some other office. The Treasury Board is supported by the Treasury Board Secretariat.
The board is the only statutory Cabinet committee and is responsible for the federal civil service and much of the operation of the Canadian government. Among its specific duties are negotiating labour agreements with the public service unions and serving as Comptroller General. It is headed by the President of the Treasury Board and assisted by the Treasury Board Secretariat.
Membership[edit]
The committee is composed of six cabinet ministers, always including its President and the Minister of Finance. The current members are as follows:
- Chair: Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board
- Vice-Chair: John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
- Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance
- Jane Philpott, Minister of Health
- Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development
- Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
There are also five "alternate members", who attend Treasury Board meetings in the event of conflicts of interest; these are currently the following:
- Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
- Dominic LeBlanc, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
- Jim Carr, Minister of Natural Resources
- Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities
- Maryam Monsef, Minister of Democratic Institutions
See also[edit]
Related legislation[edit]
- Access to Information Act
- Auditor General Act
- Official Languages Act
- Privacy Act, 1983
- Security of Information Act
References[edit]
- ^ "Treasury Board to oversee Transport Canada’s budget decisions". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
- ^ "Financial Administration Act. Part I: Organization. Treasury Board". Department of Justice (Canada). 1985. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
- ^ "About the Treasury Board". Treasury Board Secretariat. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
External links[edit]
Coordinates: 45°25′08″N 75°41′49″W / 45.4189°N 75.6970°W
