The Treasury Board is the central agency that reviews and approves spending by the Government of Canada.
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Role
The Canadian Cabinet is arranged into several committees with varying responsibilities, but all other ones are informal structures and frequently change. The Treasury Board is the only one created by law (currently organised under the Financial Administration Act), and is officially a committee of the Privy Council. Its role in government makes it far more powerful than most Cabinet committees as it is responsible for "accountability and ethics, financial, personnel and administrative management, comptrollership, approving regulations and most Orders-in-Council". It is also unique in that its committee chair, the President of the Treasury Board, is a member of cabinet by virtue of holding that office—other cabinet committees are chaired by minister holding seats in cabinet by virtue of some other office. The Treasury Board is supported by the Treasury Board Secretariat.
The board is the only statutory Cabinet committee and is responsible for the federal civil service and much of the operation of the Canadian government.
Membership
The committee is composed of six cabinet ministers, always including its President and the Minister of Finance. The current members are as follows:
There are also five "alternate members", who attend Treasury Board meetings in the event of conflicts of interest; these are currently the following: