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Bill C-25

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PART 6

PUBLIC SERVICE STAFFING TRIBUNAL

Composition and Mandate

Tribunal continued

88. (1) The Public Service Staffing Tribunal is continued, consisting of between five and seven permanent members appointed by the Governor in Council and any temporary members that are appointed under section 90.

Mandate

(2) The mandate of the Tribunal is to consider and dispose of complaints made under subsection 65(1) and sections 74, 77 and 83.

Eligibility

(3) In order to be eligible to hold office as a member, a person must

    (a) be a Canadian citizen within the meaning of the Citizenship Act or a permanent resident within the meaning of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act; and

    (b) have knowledge of or experience in employment matters in the public sector.

Full-time or part-time

(4) Members shall be appointed on a full-time or part-time basis.

Chairperson and Vice-Chairper son

(5) The Governor in Council shall designate a full-time permanent member to be Chairperson of the Tribunal and a full-time or part-time permanent member to be its Vice-Chairperson.

Residence of Chairperson

(6) The Chairperson shall reside in the National Capital Region as described in the schedule to the National Capital Act or within the distance of it specified by the Governor in Council.

Tenure

89. (1) A permanent member of the Tribunal holds office during good behaviour for a term not exceeding five years, but may be removed for cause by the Governor in Council.

Reappointmen t

(2) A permanent member is eligible to be reappointed.

Temporary members

90. (1) The Governor in Council may appoint temporary members of the Tribunal whenever, in the Governor in Council's opinion, the workload of the Tribunal so requires.

Tenure

(2) A temporary member of the Tribunal holds office during good behaviour for a term not exceeding two years, but may be removed for cause by the Governor in Council.

Reappointmen t

(3) A temporary member is eligible to be reappointed.

Carrying out functions

91. Members shall not accept or hold any office or employment or carry on any activity inconsistent with their functions, and full-time members shall devote the whole of their time to the performance of their functions.

Remuneration

92. (1) A member shall be paid the remuneration fixed by the Governor in Council.

Expenses

(2) Members are entitled to be paid reasonable travel and other expenses incurred by them in the course of their duties while absent from, in the case of full-time members, their ordinary place of work and, in the case of part-time members, their ordinary place of residence.

Application of Public Service Superannuati on Act

(3) Full-time members are deemed to be employed in the public service for the purposes of the Public Service Superannuation Act.

Application of other Acts

(4) All members are deemed to be employed in the federal public administration for the purposes of the Government Employees Compensation Act and regulations made under section 9 of the Aeronautics Act.

Offices

93. (1) The head office of the Tribunal shall be in the National Capital Region described in the schedule to the National Capital Act and the Tribunal may, with the approval of the Governor in Council, establish any regional offices that it considers necessary to carry out its mandate.

Services and facilities

(2) In executing its mandate, the Tribunal may use any services and facilities of departments, boards and agencies of the Government of Canada that are appropriate for the operation of the Tribunal.

Chief executive officer

94. (1) The Chairperson of the Tribunal is its chief executive officer and has supervision over and direction of the work of the Tribunal, including the assignment of complaints to members and the determination of the date, time and place of hearings.

Delegation by Chairperson

(2) The Chairperson may authorize the Vice-Chairperson to exercise any of the Chairperson's powers or perform any of the Chairperson's functions.

Absence of Chairperson

(3) If the Chairperson is absent or unable to act or the office of Chairperson is vacant, the Vice-Chairperson shall act as the Chairperson and, while so acting, has all the powers and shall perform all the duties of the Chairperson.

Acting Chairperson

(4) If both the Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson are absent or unable to act or if both of their offices are vacant, the minister designated under section 110 may authorize a permanent member or other qualified person to act as Chairperson for a period not exceeding 60 days and the Governor in Council may authorize a permanent member or other qualified person to act as Chairperson for any longer period.

Human resources

95. (1) The Chairperson may employ persons for the proper conduct of the Tribunal's work, fix their period of employment, establish their probationary periods, reject them on probation and lay them off.

Experts and advisers

(2) The Chairperson may retain on a temporary basis the services of mediators and other experts or persons having technical or special knowledge to assist the Tribunal in an advisory capacity and, subject to the approval of the Treasury Board, fix their remuneration.

Application of Public Service Superannuati on Act

(3) Persons retained under subsection (2) are not employed in the public service for the purposes of the Public Service Superannuation Act.

Political activities

96. Part 7 applies to persons employed by the Tribunal as if they were employees as defined in subsection 2(1).

Complaint Procedure

Mediation services

97. (1) The Tribunal may provide mediation services at any stage of a proceeding in order to resolve a complaint.

Member as mediator

(2) The provision of mediation services by a member at any stage of hearing a complaint does not prevent that member from continuing to hear the complaint with respect to any issues that have not been resolved, unless the Commission or any person entitled to be heard objects to that member continuing.

Hearing by single member

98. (1) A complaint shall be determined by a single member of the Tribunal, who shall proceed as informally and expeditiously as possible.

Decision of member

(2) A decision made by a member is a decision of the Tribunal.

Powers of Tribunal

99. (1) The Tribunal has, in relation to a complaint, the power to

    (a) summon and enforce the attendance of witnesses and compel them to give oral or written evidence on oath in the same manner and to the same extent as a superior court of record;

    (b) order that a hearing be conducted using any means of telecommunication that permits all persons participating to communicate adequately with each other;

    (c) administer oaths and solemn affirmations;

    (d) accept any evidence, whether admissible in a court of law or not;

    (e) compel, at any stage of a proceeding, any person to produce any documents and things that may be relevant; and

    (f) subject to any limitations that the Governor in Council may establish in the interests of defence or security, enter any premises of an employer where work is being or has been done by employees, inspect and view any work, material, machinery, appliances or articles in the premises and require any person in the premises to answer all proper questions relating to the complaint.

Dismissing complaint

(2) The Tribunal may summarily dismiss any complaint that, in its opinion, is frivolous or vexatious.

Decision without oral hearing

(3) The Tribunal may decide a complaint without holding an oral hearing.

Former member continuing to act

100. At any time within eight weeks after a person resigns or otherwise ceases to hold office as a member of the Tribunal, the person may, at the request of the Chairperson, dispose of any matter previously heard by that person and, for that purpose, the person is deemed to be a part-time member.

Copy of decision provided

101. The Tribunal shall render a decision on a complaint made under subsection 65(1) or section 74, 77 or 83 and provide a copy of it - including any written reasons - and any accompanying order to the Commission and to each person who exercised the right to be heard on the complaint.

Decisions final

102. (1) Every decision of the Tribunal is final and may not be questioned or reviewed in any court.

No review by certiorari, etc.

(2) No order may be made, process entered or proceeding taken in any court, whether by way of injunction, certiorari, prohibition, quo warranto or otherwise, to question, review, prohibit or restrain the Tribunal in relation to a complaint.

Filing of order in Federal Court

103. (1) The Commission or any person to whom an order of the Tribunal applies may, after the day specified for compliance or, if no such day is specified in the order, not sooner than 30 days after the day the order was made, file in the Federal Court a certified true copy of the order.

Effect of filing

(2) On the filing of an order, it becomes an order of the Federal Court and may be enforced as such.

General

Members not compellable as witnesses

104. Members of the Tribunal, persons employed by the Tribunal and persons retained under subsection 95(2) are not competent or compellable to appear as a witness in any civil proceedings respecting information obtained in the discharge of their functions.

Notes and drafts not to be disclosed

105. None of the following may be disclosed without the consent of the person who made them:

    (a) notes or draft orders or decisions of the members of the Tribunal; and

    (b) notes of any person providing mediation services under this Part.

Immunity from proceedings

106. No criminal or civil proceedings lie against a member of the Tribunal, or any person acting on behalf of the Tribunal for anything done or omitted to be done by that member or that person in good faith under this Part.

Oath or affirmation

107. Before commencing his or her functions, a person appointed as a member of the Tribunal shall take an oath or make a solemn affirmation in the following form before a commissioner of oaths or other person having authority to administer oaths or solemn affirmations:

I, ...................., do swear (or solemnly affirm) that I will faithfully, truly and impartially, to the best of my judgement, skill and ability, execute and perform the office of member (or Chairperson or Vice-Chairperson) of the Public Service Staffing Tribunal. (Add, in the case where an oath is taken, ``So help me God'' (or name of deity).)

Payment of witness fees

108. A person who is summoned by a member of the Tribunal to attend as a witness at any proceeding of the Tribunal is entitled to receive fees and allowances for so attending equal to those to which the person would be entitled if summoned to attend before the Federal Court.

Regulations and Report

Regulations of Tribunal

109. The Tribunal may make regulations respecting

    (a) the manner in which and the time within which a complaint may be made under subsection 65(1) or section 74, 77 or 83;

    (b) the procedure for the hearing of complaints by the Tribunal;

    (c) the time within which, and the persons to whom, notices and other documents must be given in relation to complaints and when the notices are deemed to have been sent, given or received;

    (d) the manner of giving notice of an issue to the Canadian Human Rights Commission under subsection 65(5) or section 78; and

    (e) the disclosure of information obtained in the course of an appointment process or a complaint proceeding under this Act.

Annual report

110. (1) The Chairperson shall, as soon as possible after the end of each fiscal year, prepare and transmit to the minister designated by the Governor in Council for the purposes of this section a report for that fiscal year in respect of matters under the Tribunal's jurisdiction.

Tabling in Parliament

(2) The minister to whom the report is transmitted shall cause the report to be laid before each House of Parliament within the first fifteen days on which that House is sitting after the minister receives it.

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