PUBLIC SERVICE |
Selection Process |
Merit Principle |
Boucher v. Canada (Attorney General)
A-699-98
Strayer J.A.
20/1/00
5 pp.
Appeal from Trial Division decision ([1999] 1 F.C. D-67) dismissing application for judicial review of Public Service Commission Appeal Board's (PSCAB) decision confirming decision of Selection Board--Selection for positions as immigration settlement counsellors--Statement of qualifications listing various factors which Selection Board weighting--Assigning 10% to knowledge factor--Also determining failure on knowledge factor not fatal to candidacy, but marks obtained in knowledge component would be added to overall score--Of five candidates qualified for position, three failed knowledge factor--Appellants unsuccessful, although passed knowledge factor--Trial Judge holding as Selection Board not erring in treatment of knowledge factor, PSCAB not making any reviewable error--PSCAB not tribunal having such expertise in interpretation of Public Service Employment Act that high degree of deference owed to it on this issue--PSCAB appointed ad hoc--Trial Judge should have applied standard of correctness--In accordance with standard of correctness, Selection Board erred in law in not requiring candidates to succeed on each of advertised qualifications for position--Effectively failed to assess knowledge factor; eliminated knowledge as qualification notwithstanding advertised requirements for job--Selection Board cannot change advertised qualifications by eliminating one or more of them: to do so unfair to those who might otherwise have applied but did not because did not have all advertised qualifications: Bambrough v. Public Service Commission, [1976] 2 F.C. 109 (C.A.); Canada (Attorney General) v. Blashford, [1991] 2 F.C. 44 (C.A.)--Appeal allowed.