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Cabinet Government in Canada: Some Recent Developments in the Machinery of the Central Executive

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

A. D. P. Heeney
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Extract

It is my impression that, while we are reasonably fortunate in having in Canada a considerable literature in the history and law of the constitution, we have not, as yet, achieved a comparable product on the humbler level of constitutional practice and procedure. There have been notable exceptions but, in the main, this is true. It may, of course, be due to the taciturnity of those who are engaged professionally in the business of government. In any event, because of this lack I have been encouraged to attempt this mechanic's view of the mechanism of executive government in motion—in the hope that it may assist others in more scholarly endeavours.

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Articles
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Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , August 1946 , pp. 282 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1946

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References

page 283 note 1 Interesting if not entirely relevant are certain “prerogatives” of the Prime Minister as listed by order-in-council (vide Appendix A).

page 283 note 2 “Critic” in the New Statesman and Nation, August 4, 1945.

page 283 note 3 The only occasion upon which all members of the Privy Council of Canada have been invited to come together was for the luncheon tendered by the government to the King and Queen upon Their Majesties' arrival at Quebec on May 17, 1939. Certain other guests were also invited, as were the Privy Councillors' wives.

page 283 note 4 1927 R.S.C., c. 206.

page 283 note 5 9-10 Geo. VI, c. 25.

page 283 note 6 “The Introduction of Cabinet Government in Canada” (Canadian Bar Review, vol. XI, 1933, pp. 1–7)Google Scholar; “Federal Influences on the Canadian Cabinet” (ibid., pp. 103-21); “Evolution and Reform of the Canadian Cabinet” (ibid., pp. 227-44).

page 284 note 7 Anson, W. R., Law and Custom of the Constitution (4th ed., Oxford, 1935), vol. II, pt. I, pp. 109-10 and p. 156.Google Scholar

page 284 note 8 Incidentally, the terms “ministry,” “administration,” and “government” are, for practical purposes, interchangeable in Canadian usage.

page 284 note 9 The exceptions were the former Controllers of Customs and of Inland Revenue and the Solicitor-General. Holders of these offices were at one time described as “members of the Ministry (not in the Cabinet).” Details of the successive steps by which each of these offices came to carry permanent Cabinet rank are given in Coté's, N. O. Political Appointments, Parliaments and the Judicial Bench in the Dominion of Canada, vol. I, 1867 to 1895 (Ottawa, 1896), and vol. II, 1896 to 1917 (Ottawa, 1917).Google Scholar In the case of the Solicitor-General, it may be added that, with the exception of Mr. J. A. Fauteaux appointed in August, 1926, holders of the office, since the appointment of Mr. Meighen in 1915, have always been members of the Cabinet. Mr. Dupré was Solicitor-General from 1930 to 1935, after which the office was vacant until Mr. Jean's appointment to the office in the present Ministry, in 1945.

page 285 note 10 It is perhaps worth noting that the quorum of “Council” is four Ministers. This rule originates in the Instructions to Viscount Monck ( Houston, William, Documents Illustrative of the Canadian Constitution, Toronto, 1891, p. 249).Google Scholar It was subsequently fixed, by order-in-council (vide Appendix A). There is no fixed quorum for meetings of the Cabinet.

page 287 note 11 Established by Order-in-Council P.C. 531, March 14, 1938.

page 287 note 12 Order-in-Council P.C. 2474, August 30, 1939.

page 287 note 13 By Order-in-Council P.C. 4017½, December 5, 1939.

page 287 note 14 War Finance and Supply, Food Production and Marketing, Fuel and Power, shipping and Transportation, Price Control and Labour, Internal Security, Legislation and Public Information.

page 287 note 15 By Order-in-Council P.C. 4068½, December 8, 1939.

page 287 note 16 Canadian House of Commons Debates, vol. II, 07 8, 1940, p. 1384 et seq. Google Scholar

page 288 note 17 Vide Appendix B, which gives a summary of the history of these Committees.

page 288 note 18 By Ordef-in-Council P.C. 5913.

page 289 note 19 By Order-in-Council P.C. 1121, March 25, 1940.

page 290 note 20 8 Geo. VI, c. 18.

page 290 note 21 The last meeting of the War Committee was on April 11.

page 290 note 22 By Order-in-Council P.C. 7993, October 13, 1944.

page 290 note 23 The original Order-in-Council (P.C. 40685/2 of December 8, 1939) was revoked and the membership and terms of reference of the Committee were revised by Cabinet decision of October 3, 1945.

page 290 note 24 In a sense the peace-time successor of the War Committee, this Committee was set up by the Cabinet in October, 1945 to consider and advise on post-war defence problems.

page 290 note 25 Vide infra re Committees of Council.

page 290 note 26 7 Geo. VI, c. 17, s. 3.

page 291 note 27 Vide infra re Committees of Council.

page 291 note 28 By the Cabinet on September 19, 1940.

page 291 note 29 By the Cabinet on February 14, 1944.

page 292 note 30 1927 R.S.C., c. 71, ss. 9 and 10.

page 292 note 31 Established by Order-in-Council P.C. 1266, June 6, 1916 and transferred to the chairmanship of the Minister of Reconstruction and Supply from that of the Minister of Trade and ommerce by Order-in-Council P.C.799S, October 13, 1944.

page 292 note 32 Established by Order-in-Council P.C. 3455, October 31, 1935.

page 293 note 33 SirMurray, George, Report on the Public Service of Canada, 1912, Sessional Papers, 1913, no. 57A, p. 9.Google Scholar

After recommending that certain duties then performed by the Governor-in-Council might safely be entrusted to the discretion of individual Ministers, Sir George went on to say: “Even after this relief has been given to the Governor in Council there will still remain many matters which, though of small intrinsic importance, must for various reasons receive the approval of the highest administrative authority. There will always be some decisions which, though properly taken by an individual Minister on his own responsibility, may yet require the outward form of sanction by the Governor in Council.

Whenever this sanction is merely formal and does not require the collective consideration of Ministers it should be given at a meeting of Council constituted for the purpose. It is not necessary that the whole body of Ministers should attend; the minimum quorum would be sufficient for the purpose and the business, being formal, would be rapidly transacted.

In other words a distinction should be drawn between a meeting of the Cabinet and a meeting of Council.

At present the Cabinet, besides performing its proper functions of discussion and deciding questions of high policy, is compelled to conduct a large amount of purely routine business. If the latter were relegated to a meeting of Council summoned ad hoc and in much smaller numbers, the time at the disposal of the Cabinet for its more important duties could be better employed.”

Some interesting comments on this and other relevant features of the Murray Report are contained in the Report of a Special Committee on the Machinery of Government set up by the Senate on May 6, 1919 at pages 6 to 10, also Appendix I at pages 20 and 21.

page 294 note 34 Sir Austen Chamberlain, in 1922, well expressed this viewpoint in the United Kingdom House of Commons on the estimates for the Cabinet Secretariat, saying: “The decision is not made, or taken, or executed, by the Cabinet Secretariat. That is no part of their functions, but it is their business to see that the decision is properly recorded, and that as so recorded it is communicated to the Minister of the Department concerned. That has, incidentally, a great advantage. When the decisions of the Cabinet have to be recorded, the decisions have to be clear. I have known Cabinets to break up under the impression that they had settled something, and every Minister going away asking his neighbour what was the decision to which they had come. The institution of a Secretariat makes that impossible, because the decision must be recorded, and if not clear, the Secretary has to ask, ‘What have I to record?’ That is of more consequence than some of those who have not sat in Cabinets would be led to suppose” ( United Kingdom Parliamentary Debates Commons 155, 1922, col. 223-4Google Scholar).

page 294 note 35 Order-in-Council P.C. 2698.

page 295 note 36 E.g., the Joint Defence Construction Projects Panel, the Wartime Committee on Hospitalization, the Advisory Committee on Rehabilitation and Reestablishment.

page 295 note 37 Order-in-Council P.C. 608, January 23, 1943.

page 296 note 38 A Military Secretary to the War Committee was added in 1944. This officer was also Military Staff Officer to the Prime Minister and a member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. He had special responsibility for advising the Prime Minister and the War Committee on military aspects of questions coming up for decision. No successor in this office was appointed when Lieutenant General Maurice Pope left in October, 1945, to become Head of the Canadian Military Mission in Germany.

page 296 note 39 At present members of the Secretariat on loan are as follows: from the Department of National Defence—one civilian, two service officers; from Mines and Resources—one; from Labour—one; from Trade and Commerce—one.

page 297 note 40 Report of the Machinery of Government Committee (U.K.), CD-9230, 1918.Google Scholar

page 297 note 41 Hankey, Lord, Government Control in War (Lees Knowles Lectures, Cambridge, 1945).Google Scholar

page 297 note 42 In the United Kingdom the Cabinet Office is entirely separate, although Lord Hankey for some years before his retirement held the two offices of Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary of the Cabinet.

page 298 note 1 Order-in-Council P.C. 1853, May 1, 1896.

page 299 note 2 Canadian House of Commons Debates, unrevised Hansard, 04 1, 1946, pp. 449–50.Google Scholar