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During Jean Chrétien's term as Prime Minister of Canada, parliamentary secretaries were set to two-year terms and the post was used as a reward for weary backbenchers. The only real duty of parliamentary secretaries was to answer questions and table reports on behalf of ministers when they were unable to be present in the house.
Current Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, when sworn-in in 2003, promised a new role for parliamentary secretaries. They would now be sworn into the privy council giving them access to secret documents, be allowed to attend Canadian Cabinet meetings and be assigned specific files by ministers. This replaced the positions of Secretaries of StateFron 1993 to 2003, the title of Secretary of State was given to officials in the Government of Canada. Secretaries of State were MPs who were members of the Ministry and the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, assigned to assist Cabinet ministers, but not t which had been in practice under Chrétien.
In the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly, parliamentary secretaries are the third level of government ministerA minister is a politician who heads a government ministry or department (e. education, finance, health, state, war etc. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet, usually led by a prime minister or president. The term "minister" comes from a Latin word; above them are ministers of state, and above those secretaries of state. Parliamentary private secretaries (PPS) are rather different - they are members of parliament who act as unpaid assistants to individual ministers, but have no ministerial role despite being expected to support the government at all times.