Sub-series consists of records created by the Treasury Board as a committee of Cabinet.
Despite the official name, this series is not composed of real summaries of individual decisions made but rather summaries of Treasury Board meetings that fall short of formal minutes. The summaries are consistently written in long hand log entries in bound volumes in two ink colours to distinguish the two principal types of decisions rendered by TBS. The typical summary from 1929 gives 1. date of meeting, 2. who was present (an element which became corrupted and incomplete in later years), 3. whether the "minute" (decision) was forwarded for action by Privy Council (order-in-council), 4. "Board number" meaning the sequential Board meeting since 1868 (an element that broke down after 1960), and thereafter specifying 5. decision number only (no title or subject), 6. arranged by Department. The decisions are then distinguished by colour of ink, black for those referred to Privy Council for issue as orders-in-council and in red for those not for council and issued by under Treasury Board statutory mandate. Formats vary over time and some items disappear entirely. The sequential Board meeting number starting at 806 in 1929, stops at 16 November 1967. Between 1965 and 1968, the strict arrangement of information breaks down. The segregation of recommendations to council and those authorized under Treasury Board statutory authority by meeting date shifts to a pattern in which the two classes of decision are not clearly distinguished and the use of red ink to highlight decisions under Treasury Board authority only is dropped. As of 1966, only Treasury Board decisions that are referred to Council for confirmation as orders-in-council are recorded. Finally, the recording of who attended, while remaining the norm, is not consistently completed. These changes reflect the introduction of a parallel system of "Agenda Binders" circa 1970 (still retained by Treasury Board Secretariat as of 2005).
The "Summaries" sub-series is inherently limited in content but as a whole has marginal added value to the main decision series. For the years 1929 to 1948, the sub-series has a special enhanced value. For the years 1911 to 1937, Treasury Board executed a severe selection of the main series of decisions and destroyed them. This means that for the years 1929 to 1937, this "summaries" series is the only source of information on decisions to supplement the one line entries found in the "indexes and registers" sub-series In addition, for the years 1929-1948, it provides a supplementary means to establish the connection between a decision number and its actual date of approval. This is important because both parallel series of decisions that exist for this period, the main "minute files" sub-series and the "Board Books," are arranged first by date of approval and then by type and/or by Department. The indices and registers for this period, however, specify the date the submission was received, not date of approval, leaving a gap in the ability to locate a decision in either series. In these circumstances, the "Summaries of Decision" sub-series becomes an important supplementary tool that may be used in conjunction with the Indexes and Registers sub-series to conduct complex searches. Apart from these practical uses, the Summaries are a complete profile of business conducted at each meeting of Treasury Board up to 1965 and thereafter a partial record that cross references all decisions referred to council for approval as an order-in-council.
The final volume of the sub-series is completely different from the rest. It is a parallel registry covering the period 1975-1998 arranged by order in council number sequentially and then date of order, then in most cases cross referenced toTB decision number.
In conjunction with the Index and Registry sub-series, the "Agendas" sub-series, the "Minutes Binders" sub-series and the still to be acquired "[annotated] Agenda Binder" series, the "summaries of decision" sub-series demonstrates the evolving effort to interpret adequate levels of accountability into the Treasury Board activity. In 2003 the Submission and Cabinet Document Centre incorporated a new "record of decisions" which further formalizes a detailed accounting of actual activity as well as an enhanced effort at accountability for accurate records of actual attendance (late arrivals and early departures included). The Summaries of decision sub-series, 1929-2004, provides an invaluable link in this story of administrative governance.
