Proper Use of Authority

The government gives agencies authority to make decisions. This authority comes through laws that establish the agency and the rules it operates by. Government agencies cannot make decisions on matters unless they have this authority.

The type of decision must be one that the agency has the authority to make. A government agency can only make decisions on things if the law says it can. For example, an agency established to handle work-related injury claims could not decide if a worker can receive social assistance.

The way that an agency makes a decision must also be authorized by law. These laws give agencies discretion to make decisions and rules to follow. If agencies do not use their discretion properly or follow the rules, their decision could be overturned.

There are several ways that an agency could improperly decide something…

• They cannot give another agency the authority to make decisions that only it is authorized to make. Agencies can delegate some work, but they must ultimately have control over the decision.
• They cannot have a policy that restricts their decision-making authority. For example, an agency may have the authority to compensate victims of crime for expenses such as counselling and physiotherapy. In this case, they cannot decide that they will never compensate for counselling expenses as a matter of policy.
• They cannot use the powers that they have been given for a different purpose. For example, an agency may have the authority to expropriate land for conservation purposes. In this case, they could not expropriate land to be used for something like a restaurant.
• They cannot take irrelevant matters into account when making their decisions. For example, an agency could not consider someone’s height when deciding if the landlord could evict them from a rental property.