Senators sit in the Senate of Canada Building in Ottawa, in September, 2020.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he will continue to rely on the independent advisory board created by Justin Trudeau to suggest Senate appointments, but gave no timeline for filling a growing number of vacancies.
After more than a year in office Mr. Carney has yet to make a single Senate appointment. Vacancies are mounting not just among senators but also on the board tasked with selecting new members of the Senate.
There are currently nine vacancies in the 105-member Senate and another six senators are planning to retire by the end of 2026.
The Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, consisting of federal, provincial and territorial representatives, currently has just five members. It has 24 vacancies, leaving most provinces without representation on the board.
At a Montreal-area press conference, Mr. Carney gave no indication of when he would begin addressing the vacancies in the Senate.
“We will be appointing senators in due course, and I will take into account the advice of the independent advisory committee that was established by my predecessor,” he said.
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According to the advisory board’s website it is not currently accepting applications or nominations for the Senate.
Mr. Carney’s office did not clarify Wednesday whether the senators he appoints will sit outside the Liberal caucus.
In 2014, when Stephen Harper was prime minister, Mr. Trudeau, then-Liberal leader, expelled all Liberal senators from his caucus in response to the growing Senate expense scandal. Those senators then sat as independents and created their own groups in the Senate. The Conservative Party did not follow suit and those senators remain in the Tory caucus.
Mr. Trudeau created a new regime for Senate appointments after he formed government in 2015. That process though is criticized by the opposition as anything but independent and many of the senators Mr. Trudeau appointed, though they sit as independents, had Liberal ties.
For example, Mr. Trudeau’s final round of appointments to the Senate included two former provincial Liberal ministers: Tony Ince from Nova Scotia and Sandra Pupatello from Ontario.
He also appointed his former caucus mate, Rodger Cuzner, in 2023.
Conservative Senator Denise Batters described the Liberal’s arms-length selection process as “fake” on Wednesday and said the government should return to appointing senators the same way her party did when it was in power.
Prior to the creation of the advisory board, Senate appointments were decided on solely by the prime minister.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office declined to comment Wednesday. In late April, the opposition leader urged Mr. Carney to include Conservatives in his next round of appointments to bolster the shrinking Conservative ranks.
At the time, Mr. Poilievre argued that the Senate should better reflect the results of the last general election when Conservatives won 41 per cent of the vote. There are currently just 11 Conservative senators and two of them are expected to retire next year.
Such a move would not be unprecedented. In 2005, then-prime minister Paul Martin also appointed opposition members to the Senate.