bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1985) — Winter 1985 // Hiver 1985, p. 39
The Auditor General’s report questioned the procedures leading to the purchase of 34 membership-debentures in Hong Kong’s Aberdeen Marina Club. The memberships were purchased as part of the department’s Recreational Hardship Support Service, a program set up on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on the Conditions of Foreign Service. On November 18, Mr. Clark announced that he had instructed the department to sell the debentures as soon as practicable and phase in alternative recreational assistance arrangements for employees and their families and to establish new procedures for the program. In appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on November 19, Associate Undersecretary of State Derek Burney told members that: “Hong Kong was one of the posts identified as having severe recreational hardship … Itis a popular destination for tourists but it is also a heavily congested city-state of at least five and a half million. Hong Kong is one of the noisiest, most hectic cities in the world and regarded as one of the world’s most stressful environments. Frequent escape to a quiet haven is a necessity. Our 34 employees, officers and support staff, and their 63 family members live in high-rise, high-density buildings and have little or no possibility for recreational escape.”
Members of the Committee were not unsympathetic to the plight of the foreign service. Conservative member Jim Hawkes suggested that: “we have created a mountain here with this audit note that, in a public relations sense, makes the world more difficult for the people serving abroad. It has resulted in a policy shift a la communiqué. I bet if this committee was to look back on it ten years from now, we might find that the audit note has created more expenditure for the taxpayers of Canada.” Sharing this view, Conservative member Scott Fennell opined that the “Auditor General’s department is grandstanding and the department has overreacted.”
PAFSO wrote two letters on this subject to the Minister which we reprint in this issue. PAFSO has never received a reply from Mr. Clark or his Office.
Right Honourable Joe Clark
Secretary of State for External Affairs
Department of External Affairs
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0G2
Dear Mr. Clark:
We hope the rather unfortunate publicity resulting from the Auditor General’s observation on the purchase of memberships in the Aberdeen Marina Club will not deter your own commitment and that of the management of our department to improved access to recreation facilities. As you are aware, particularly at hardship posts characterized by such difficulties as levels of violence, food shortages, isolation or overcrowding considered unacceptable by Canadian standards, not only the morale but well-being of those serving abroad will remain dependent on this continued commitment.
For this reason, amongst others, Pamela McDougall was asked in August, 1980, to investigate the conditions of foreign service particularly from the “point of view of their families”. ’. We welcomed this action as long overdue. Her thorough report, tabled in October, 1981, provided an accurate look at conditions of foreign service. Ms. McDougall and her team visited over 40 per cent of Canadian posts abroad and were available to over half of the 1,800 employees as well as their spouses and children. McDougall was convinced that “access to recreation facilities for all staff members and their families is vital for the maintenance of physical and mental health” and we continue to endorse her recommendation that “access to a basic level of recreational facilities for all foreign service members be a priority of the Government”.
We applaud the actions that successive governments have subsequently taken to implement these positive recommendations at our posts abroad. It is especially important that in its continuing implementation of this recommendation the Government maintain the principle of equal access to recreational facilities for all members of the foreign service family, including spouses and children. We hope that any review of the decision with regard to the Aberdeen Marina Club will not undermine the Government’s commitment to the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Conditions of Foreign Service.
Jean-Paul Delisle Jack Donegani
President President
PAFSO PIPS
Right Honourable Joe Clark
Secretary of State for External Affairs
Department of Exernal Affairs
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
KIA 0G2
Dear Mr. Clark:
Members of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers were disappointed to learn that you had announced on November 18 that you had instructed the department to sell the memberships in the Aberdeen Marina Club. There were several reasons for our disappointment. Firstly, there had been no response to our letter of October 21 (signed jointly with the Professional Institute of the Public Service) and no opportunity for us to consult with you or your staff. Secondly, your decision does not follow from the assertion in the press release of November 18 (Communiqué No. 172) that the President of the Treasury Board has found the Recreational Hardship Support Program sound in principle and that the department had committed no improprieties, technical or otherwise, in the transaction. Moreover, our disappointment was compounded when it was reported that government members of the Public Accounts Committee had accused the Auditor General of “grandstanding” and had urged the government to reconsider the decision to sell the membership.
Our wish would be to see the memberships, and the recreational facilities they represent for foreign service personnel of all ranks, maintained. As professional members of the foreign service, of course, we will respect and abide by your decision but not without continuing disappointment that the Minister did not choose to defend the department’s original decision.
We are also concerned that if the memberships are sold the funds received will be returned to consolidated revenues as an asset and therefore lost to the program. We would hope that this will not be the case. The revenues realized from the sale of the shares should be added to those funds already budgeted to this program. We would, therefore, welcome your assurance that funding of the program will not suffer as a result to the decision to sell the shares.
Yours sincerely,
Jean-Paul Delisle
President
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1985) — Winter 1985 // Hiver 1985, p. 39. Read the rest of this issue →
