Congratulations Letter to the Secretary to the Governor General

Ian McCowan
Secretary
Office of the Secretary to the Governor General
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G5

Dear Mr. McCowan:

We would like to congratulate you on your recent appointment as Secretary to the Governor General.

In this capacity, you will be instrumental in ensuring the integrity of staffing in your organization in a values- and merit-based system. You will also have a key leadership role, in collaboration with the Public Service Commission (PSC), in ensuring that the public service is non-partisan.

The PSC has delegated to you authorities under the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) to make appointments to and within your organization. The terms and conditions of this delegation, including monitoring and reporting obligations, are identified in the Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument, which also lists the authorities being delegated and those you may sub-delegate. We invite you to familiarize yourself with this Instrument (Annex A).

You will find that our appointment framework provides for discretion that will allow you to achieve the desired outcomes for your organization. It also provides for flexibility in how you exercise the delegated authorities for which you are accountable. We encourage you to review your existing policies and instruments to ensure they continue to meet your organization’s staffing needs and are consistent with the strategic direction you wish to set for your organization.

To support you in strengthening your staffing system, we have assigned a staffing support advisor to your organization, Nancy St-Pierre, who maintains regular contact with your human resources team.

Please note that your organization is subject to the political activities provisions of the PSEA. As deputy head, your engagement in political activities is limited to voting in federal, provincial, territorial and municipal elections.

Your employees have the right to engage in political activities as long as those activities do not impair, or are not perceived as impairing, their ability to perform their duties in a politically impartial manner. Potential cases of improper political activities by youremployees should be referred to the PSC, which has the sole authority under the Act to investigate such cases.

A virtual meeting will be arranged with you in the near future so that we can discuss these important areas of responsibility and any other questions you might have. In the meantime, should you have any questions about your delegated appointment and appointment-related authorities, or the PSEA’s political activity provisions, we invite you to contact us at the following address patrick.borbey@canada.ca.

Also enclosed, for your information, is the French version of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Attachment

Annex A: Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument