Even-Stephen by Jordan Petty, May 18, 2006, Calgary Herald. NO LONGER AVAILABLE ONLINE THUS POSTED HERE
Re: “Denying Morgan an injury to us all,”
Calgary Herald Editorial, May 18.
Predictably, the Herald has jumped to the defence of oil-patch executive Gwyn Morgan.
Yet in berating the House committee’s democratic decision to reject Morgan for the position of head of the Public Appointments Commission, the Herald failed to explain why Morgan was the appropriate choice. Morgan may have been the successful CEO of an oil company, but this has little to do with public accountability. In fact, if Morgan was as committed to accountability as the Herald makes him out to be, why didn’t he push for greater accountability in Alberta?
Alberta has the least accountable and least democratic system of appointments and administrative decision making in the country. The EUB comes to mind.
Or perhaps Morgan should have pushed harder for government accountability in Ecuador, a country where EnCana has a pathetic environmental and social legacy. Stephen Harper campaigned on a promise to rid the federal government of patronage appointments. By rejecting Conservative party donor Morgan, the House committee helped him keep that promise.
Frustrated PM abruptly cancels public appointments commission, Prime Minister Stephen Harper scrapped his public appointments commission Tuesday after MPs were accused of conducting a “partisan political lynching” of Gwyn Morgan, the Calgary oilman who agreed to serve as volunteer chief of the patronage watchdog office by Canwest News Service, May 17, 2006, Ottawa Citizen. NO LONGER AVAILABLE ONLINE THUS POSTED HERE
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper scrapped his public appointments commission Tuesday after MPs were accused of conducting a “partisan political lynching” of Gwyn Morgan, the Calgary oilman who agreed to serve as volunteer chief of the patronage watchdog office.
Opposition MPs used their majority in the Commons government operations committee to vote 6-5 for a New Democratic Party motion branding Morgan, the recently retired chief executive officer of EnCana, “unsuitable” to head the commission after they grilled him on recent remarks he made about immigrants, multiculturalism and unions.
Morgan, 60, repeatedly told MPs he regrets the wording of remarks several MPs characterized as racist, but said they had been taken out of context. He said he has no racist “blood in his body” and the accusations of racism, which he first dealt with months ago after speeches in which he first made them, were painful to him and his family.
“It’s sad for me and my family and I realize this is somewhat of my own doing,” the 60-year-old told Jason Kenney, Harper’s parliamentary secretary and a Calgary MP, who asked if he had ever been similarly characterized during a distinguished corporate career. It was Kenney who slammed Liberal, NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs for conducting a “partisan political lynching” after the raucous committee hearing he dismissed as a kangaroo court.
Two hours later, Harper told reporters the commission was a non-starter one day after he announced the appointment of Morgan and three other commissioners who were to establish a process to reduce patronage in government appointments by more widely advertising openings and setting merit-based criteria for selecting appointees. He said the government now would proceed with appointments “in the traditional manner.”
“Obviously I’m very disappointed with what I think is an irresponsible decision,” Harper said. “Here you have a top CEO in the country and a number of his colleagues who are willing to work for nothing to clean up the appointments process. For partisan reasons, the other parties, the opposition parties, don’t want to do that.
“So what that tells (us) is we won’t be able to clean up the process in this minority Parliament. We’ll obviously need a majority government to do that in the future. That’s obviously what we’ll be taking to the people of Canada at the appropriate time.”
Harper said he did not expect other people to step forward to take the commission job for which Morgan was rejected, so it was disbanded.
(c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.
http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=ef7d26ff-a4a8-435c-a1f8-a06ab1101a30
PRIME MINISTER NOMINATES FIRST CHAIRPERSON OF THE PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS COMMISSION Press Release by Harper Gov’t, Toronto, Ontario, 21 April 2006 NO LONGER AVAILABLE ONLINE THUS POSTED HERE
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was pleased to announce today the nomination of Gwyn Morgan as the first Chairperson of the new Public Appointments Commission. This proposed appointment will be referred to the Standing Committee of the House of Commons on Government Operations and Estimates for review. The Government of Canada looks forward to receiving the results of the Committee’s review as soon as possible. “Gwyn Morgan is an outstanding Canadian and, throughout his career, has been a champion of transparency and ethics in the private and public sectors, stated the Prime Minister. “I am delighted that he has accepted this new challenge that will lead to more open, honest and accountable government for Canadians. And, he has agreed to do it for $1 a year.”
Gwyn Morgan, from Calgary, Alberta, has led the building of one of the world’s leading oil and gas companies and Canada’s largest energy company, EnCana Corporation. **Pffft! What lying crap. Mr. Morgan was given most of the assets by Alberta politicians, off the backs of Albertans.**
Mr. Morgan was President and Chief Executive Officer of EnCana from 2002 until stepping down on January 1, 2006. Mr. Morgan is counted among Canada’s most respected business leaders and his accomplishments have been recognized through numerous awards and honorary distinctions, including being named Canada’s most respected CEO in 2005 in a survey conducted by Ipsos Reid.
The mandate of the Public Appointments Commission is to oversee and report on the selection process for Governor in Council appointments to agencies, boards, commissions and Crown corporations. **Unbelievably evil pick, even for Steve Harper’s low brow ways.**
The Commission will develop guidelines, review and approve the selection processes proposed by Ministers to fill vacancies within their portfolios, and report publicly on the Government’s compliance with the guidelines. “By establishing the Public Appointments Commission, the Government is implementing a key component of its overall plan to strengthen accountability in government as outlined in the Federal Accountability Act,” **One of the most vile and hated corporate leaders to lead accountability?** stated the Prime Minister.
“The Commission will provide the necessary oversight **cover-up** to ensure that the selection of individuals is based on merit **getting away with breaking the law and contaminating entire community drinking water supplies** and is done in **secretive lying bullying community-dividing and bribing** an open and transparent way.”
The Public Appointments Commission is provided for in the Federal Accountability Act which was tabled in the House of Commons on April 11th, 2006.
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PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS COMMISSION
The mandate of the Public Appointments Commission is to oversee and report on the selection process for Governor in Council appointments. The Commission will ensure that competitions for government appointments are widely publicized and fairly conducted. In carrying out its mandate, the Commission will:
**Imagine Gwyn Morgan in charge of this:**
establish guidelines governing selection processes for Governor in Council appointments to agencies, boards, commissions and Crown corporations;
approve the selection processes proposed by Ministers to fill vacancies within agencies, boards, commissions and Crown corporations for which they are responsible;
monitor, review and evaluate selection processes in order to ensure that they are implemented as approved; and,
provide an annual report to the Prime Minister, to be tabled in both Houses of Parliament, on the Government’s performance in following the code of practice.
Located within the Prime Minister’s portfolio, the Public Appointments Commission will be composed of a Chairperson and four Commissioners. They will be supported in their work by a small secretariat, which is currently being established. The Secretariat will be headed by an Executive Director, Mr. Peter Harrison, an experienced Deputy Minister with considerable background in human resource management. Biographical information on Mr. Harrison is attached.
Guidelines governing the appointment process will be in place by early Fall. In the interim, the Government will make necessary appointments as required, ensuring that fair and open selection processes based on merit are followed. To this end, a government website will be established to list positions that are to be filled. The address for the website will be www.appointments-nominations.gc.ca.
* * * * * GWYN MORGAN
Gwyn Morgan, from Calgary, Alberta, is one of Canada’s most distinguished business leaders. A petroleum engineering graduate from the University of Alberta, he led the building of one of the world’s leading oil and gas companies and Canada’s largest energy company, EnCana Corporation. Mr. Morgan was founding President and Chief Executive Officer of EnCana from 2002 until stepping down on January 1, 2006. Mr. Morgan has been recognized through numerous awards and honorary distinctions, including being named Canada’s most respected CEO in 2005 in a survey conducted by Ipsos Reid of 250 business leaders in Canada. An inductee to the Alberta Business Hall of Fame, he has served on the Boards of a number of organizations in the private and not-for-profit sectors, including HSBC Bank of Canada, the SNC-Lavallin Group, Alcan Inc., the Public Policy Forum, the Fraser Institute and the Calgary University Hospital. Mr. Morgan was also the co-chair of the Calgary Fundraising Committee for the Northern Alberta Children’s Health Centre, co-Chair of the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference, and is an honorary Colonel (retired) of the 410 Tactical Fighter Squadron, Canadian Air Force. Gwyn Morgan is recognized for his self-discipline and integrity, and his strong belief that a corporation should be a positive social and ethical force.
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Tories name EnCana founder to vet appointments by Gloria Galloway, April 1, 2006,
Globe and Mail NO LONGER AVAILABLE ONLINE THUS POSTED HERE
The federal Conservatives have nominated former Calgary oil executive Gwyn Morgan as head of the public appointments commission.
Mr. Morgan is the former president and chief executive officer of EnCana. If his nomination is accepted by the government’s operations and estimates committee, he will approve selection to fill vacancies at the federal level.
“I can’t tell you how delighted I was when Gwyn accepted my invitation to take on this job for the people of Canada,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a joint meeting of the Canadian and Empire clubs in Toronto on Friday.
The move is part of the government’s attempt to bring accountability to its appointments process and to prevent cronyism that has plagued previous regimes.
Mr. Morgan, a 30-year veteran of the oil patch, built EnCana to become the biggest natural gas producer on the continent.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060421.wmorgan0421/BNStory/National/home
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=aMuDX5oL6IdU&refer=canada