August 6, 1904 (9th Parliament, 4th Session)

Mr. PARMELEE.

The amendments are intended to remove any ambiguity or doubt there may have been in the original report. While we did not change the status of the officers of the distribution office we adopted rather more euphonious names for them and we decided to civil them superintendent, first assistant superintendent and second assistant superintendent of distribution of printed documents of parliament. These officers are not directly under the Civil Service Act, but we decided to so increase their salaries os to place them on a parity with officers of the same rank in the various departments of the government while "the amendment I have moved is intended to remove any doubt on that score ; that is we do not place them actually under the Civil Service Act, but leave them as they now are under the control of the committee as officers directly responsible to the^ House. There was a messenger who performed many other services largely of a clerical character and we decided to make him a junior second-class clerk but with the understanding that he should go on performing the same duties that he is now [DOT]discharging. While that was the intention of the committee the report did not state it in so many words and I deemed it prosper to remove any doubt about it in the future by providing that this officer should go on and perform the same duties he is performing now, because, perhaps in two or three years, he might say : I am not a messenger, I am a junior second-class clerk, I do not propose to do messenger work and you must appoint another messenger. I think the amendment I have moved is in the direction of making the intention of the committee absolutely cleax-, keeping our control over the officers of the House and leaving us in such a position that we can deal with them according to their merits as necessity arises.
Mr. LaRIVIERE. As a member of the subcommittee that took the matter into consideration I may say that I am personally perfectly satisfied with the stexx that has been taken by the committee. It is a step in the right direction.