Canada. Royal Commission on Technical and Professional Services : The Royal Commission on Technical and Professional Services was established under Order in Council P.C. 664, 15 April 1929 under Part I of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., 1927 c.99) and on the recommendation of the Minister of Finance. The terms of reference were extended by Order in Council P.C. 1195, 2 July 1929 and by Order in Council P.C. 1053, 16 May 1930. The Commission was mandated to inquire into rates of salaries, pensions, etc., of technical and professional officials of the civil service of Canada as compared with such rates of similar positions outside of the civil service in Canada, and to report to the government as to readjustment of existing classifications and remunerations, and to make such other observations with regard to salaries as the commission may consider relevant. Further, to include in the inquiry: civil service commissioners, pension commissioners, railway commissioners, deputy ministers; and all government employees whether subject to the Civil Service Act or not, and to report on which employees are "professional and technical officers". The commissioners were Edward Wentworth Beatty, Chairman, John George Garneau and Walter Charles Murray. The secretary was W.C. Ronson.
In the 1920s the salaries of the professional and scientific classes in the federal civil service were considerably lower than their counterparts in industry. Many scientists, professionals, and technical personnel were leaving the civil service for more lucrative positions elsewhere. In March 1927 the government requested that the Civil Service Commission (CSC) consider salaries of the professional, scientific, and translator classes. CSC submitted its report in May 1928. It had used university graduation or its equivalent standing as the basis for distinguishing between the professional and scientific classes and those of the remainder of the service. It included in this group all persons with a maximum salary range above ,000 on the theory that they would possibly have professional and scientific personnel working under their direction. The salary increases it recommended for these classes ranged from 40 to 20. The effect of the CSC's report was to include in the professional and scientific category employees in senior executive and administrative positions. The salary increases would have applied to 2,080 positions and would have cost the government a total of 50,000 annually.
The presentation of the CSC's report raised serious doubts in the minds of some members of the Cabinet on the competence of CSC in handling salary matters. Perhaps the salaries of senior executives and administrators needed to be increased, but the government had not requested CSC to investigate these positions. There was even the suggestion that the government was willing to grant a larger increase than CSC had recommended to those persons occupying purely scientific or professional positions. The Government of Canada decided, in view of its objections, to remove the question from the hands of CSC and appoint a royal commission to investigate further into the matter (See J.E. Hodgetts, et. al., The Biography of an Institution: The Civil Service Commission of Canada, 1908-1967, Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1972, pp. 129-131). Hearings of the Commission were held in Ottawa, Victoria, and Quebec City from 7 June 1929 to 6 December 1929. RG33-15 General Inventory
