The former head of New Brunswick's Public Library Service has written a letter to Premier Blaine Higgs, alleging the wording of the ad for her position was designed to let the province replace her with a non-librarian.

Sylvie Nadeau, who served as the provincial librarian and executive director for 20 years until her retirement at the end of December, said she recently returned from a two-month vacation in Spain and learned Kevin Cormier was put in charge of the province's 64 public libraries, despite an apparent lack of library training or experience.

"As a citizen, this appointment gives me grave concerns that this might be the new way that the government is going to fill positions anywhere in government in the future: by manipulating the recruitment ads (beyond their officially approved requirements) to 'tailoring' them in order to facilitate particular agendas, political appointments, favouritism, friendships, and what else," she wrote.

Nadeau said she knows of at least two "highly qualified" and fluently bilingual internal candidates who were interviewed for the job, which comes with an annual salary of up to nearly $114,000.

Appointment 'flawed'

She is calling on the premier to order an in-depth independent review of the "profoundly flawed" recruitment process.

The review should cover the writing and approval of the ad, the screening of candidates, the interviews, the composition of the panel that conducted the interviews to ensure there were no conflicts of interest, the linguistic assessments, the use of the Corporate Talent Management Program to appoint Cormier, as well as the appointment itself, she said.

"I think there is … probably enough flaws there to warrant a cancellation of that competition and to rescind the appointment," Nadeau told CBC News.

"I would [be] shocked if he doesn't uncover more than one thing."

Higgs could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The Department of Post-Secondary Education Training and Labour, which the public library service falls under, did not respond to a request for comment.

Nadeau said the executive director ad published by the government last fall did not meet the qualifications and level of experience laid out in the position description questionnaire, known as a PDQ, that was submitted and approved by the office of human resource's classification committee when the position was classified at pay band level nine about 10 years ago.

Kevin Cormier was appointed the executive director of the New Brunswick Public Library Service, effective Feb. 18. (Kevin Cormier/Facebook)

The minimum requirements in that document are: "MLIS (master of library and/or information studies) with 9 years of progressive experience, including management and supervision of library operation. Knowledge of large network library system is essential."

But the job posting stipulated a master's degree in library and/or information studies from an American Library Association-accredited program, "with a minimum of (8) years of progressively responsible related work experience, including at least three (3) years of management experience in a complex operational environment involving responsibility for human and financial resources. A combination of education, training and experience may be considered."

Whoever directed this must have felt quite powerful, untouchable and invincible to think this would go unnoticed and unchallenged. - Sylvie Nadeau, retired executive director of provincial library service

"By removing the 'library management' experience component, and adding the broader wording and the equivalency clause, it opened the door to all kinds of interpretations to allow a wide range of equivalencies," said Nadeau.

"This obviously had a direct impact on the screening process to select the candidates who would be invited to an interview. As a next step, it allowed the appointment of a candidate without a master of library and/or information studies and the library management experience."

Nadeau questioned why the wording of the ad would "stray so far" from the qualifications described in the approved PDQ.

"This had to be intentional. But again why? What was the agenda behind this?

"Whoever directed this must have felt quite powerful, untouchable and invincible to think this would go unnoticed and unchallenged."

Disrespect to public and profession

Nadeau said she felt duty-bound to write to Higgs to alert him to the situation and give him the opportunity to "correct this unfair, unjustifiable and incomprehensible decision."

"As the retired provincial librarian/executive director, I see it as a misguided disrespect to the public and against a profession and generations of professional librarians and library staff who have built New Brunswick Public Library Service," wrote Nadeau, who previously served as regional director for the Chaleur library region, based in Campbellton, and director of Le Cormoran Library in Saint John..

The legacy of generations of professional librarians who managed the public library system for the past 66 years to make it what it is today have been "trampled on," she said.

Nadeau contends the classification of the executive director position would never have been approved as a pay band level nine if the description of the qualifications in the PDQ had not indicated the necessity of a master's degree in library and/or information studies as well as nine years of progressive experience, including management and supervision of library operation.

She noted level nine is a very high classification.

"I mean, the next one after that is 10 and it's for a superintendent of [a] school district. And can [you] imagine a superintendent of a school district being appointed without the proper qualifications? It would be unimaginable."

The position description questionnaires, meanwhile, are very important government documents, from an administrative point of view, stressed Nadeau.

They are used to create job specifications, job descriptions and recruitment ads.

"All these documents work together and are supposed to be aligned," she wrote. "This is how it is supposed to work."

Labour Minister Trevor Holder has declined to discuss Cormier's qualifications, instead asking New Brunswickers to give him 'time to prove himself.' (Ed Hunter/CBC)

Based on media reports, Cormier does not even have the basic qualifications to be considered for a library manager position of a small library at a pay band level two, said Nadeau, "because these positions require at least a bachelor's degree."

Cormier's LinkedIn profile lists his education as a single year at York University's Schulich School of Business in Toronto in 2005 and two years at the Moncton Flight College, from 1998 to 2000.

He spent the past year as a strategic adviser in the Executive Council Office, working on corporate governance and accountability with agencies, boards and commissions of the public service. He was previously the chief executive officer of Kings Landing Corporation and has worked in various other roles in the public service over the past 15 years.

Nadeau said she knows at least three "talented" professional librarians who have been working within New Brunswick Public Library Service in senior management roles for many years were considering applying for the executive director position because they asked if they could put her name as a reference.

At least two of them were interviewed for the position, but she did not receive any call to provide a reference for any of them, she said.

Cormier was ultimately appointed the head of the library service through the Corporate Talent Management Program, which provides current and aspiring executives in the upper pay bands with opportunities to further develop their competencies within or outside their current department.

"This program, to my knowledge, was not designed or intended to be used to appoint unqualified candidates to positions," wrote Nadeau.

"However, I have to point out that I believe that its design opened the door to this type of abuse." She cited the small number of government employees registered in the program.

Talent program under scrutiny

The government is reviewing the program, Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder announced in the legislature last month in response to questions from Green Party Leader David Coon, who said he was "appalled" by the appointment of Cormier.

Holder reiterated at the time that there was no political patronage involved and that he has "complete confidence" in the appointment made by his former deputy minister Sadie Perron under the program.

"It has been used throughout the years to move people around throughout government and that's exactly what happened here," Holder said.

"Now having said that, I understand there's some public concern here, and that's why the premier [and] myself have spoken to the Department of Human Resources and we're actually currently having a review of the talent management program just to make sure that it does what it's supposed to do.

"And if there can be any improvements made to that program, we will do that."

Eleven people applied for the job when it was initially posted as an open competition, department officials have said.

But they have declined to reveal whether any of them were interviewed, or to disclose any information about their qualifications, citing privacy.

The position was posted from Nov. 1 until Nov. 25 "with the intention of providing sufficient opportunity for the ad to be seen and for interested individuals to apply," a department spokesperson had said.