Part of the budget replenishment this week included incoming
a signal of intention regarding a federal state. The prime minister and finance minister set the table, kicking off summer sprints on reviews of spending, regulation and procurement, and providing comments that signaled a forthcoming reprioritization of spending. Reducing government spending was one of seven priorities in the overall mandate letter to ministers. They worked for several months to prove that certain types of expenses should be considered and accounted for as investments.
In parallel, the new government put “government transformation” at the forefront. There is a new Cabinet Committee chaired by the Minister of Finance, literally called Government Transformation/Government Effectiveness. The government also inherited the Public Sector Productivity Taskforce from its predecessor.
Early on, the new government expressed a desire to change not only what the federal government does, but also how it operates. The first steps certainly showed ambition. Ministers were instructed to deal with defense procurement and
. New organizations are being created: Build Canada Homes, Major Projects Administration, Defense Investment Agency. Serious people with deep private sector experience have agreed to come to the public sector during these difficult times.
The November Budget certainly sets some important signals for the federal civil service, along with a long list of policy and legislative implementation tasks. Regulatory reform is still a work in progress. The budget finally ends a long period of growing operating budgets and personnel, bending the curve toward a shrinking workforce.
But it falls short of “transformation” and if the government survives the vote of confidence, we will see in the coming months whether those initial ambitions accelerate or fail.
Here are some thoughts on how government can stay on track with “generational” government capacity reform.
The first challenge is to manage budget and personnel reductions in a way that protects future opportunities. The Treasury Board Secretariat is the governing body of the government and the closest thing to the role of the chief operating officer. This may require departments and agencies to benchmark and report their expenditures (sorry, their investments) in training, professional development, leadership capabilities and management acumen.
Looking to the future, the government could commit to doubling its investment in the workforce. It might ask
Conduct a comparative analysis and recommend more effective ways to monitor and prevent rollbacks. It could control minimum levels of student recruitment and employment in co-ops to prevent middle managers from taking the easy way out of tight budgets. It could offer unions a training passport guaranteeing a minimum number of hours of training per year.
The desire to reduce dependence on external contractors, now repeated in subsequent budgets, is not matched by a commitment to upskill public servants so they can take on the work. It is also curious that the government has not taken decisive action to simply ban government employees from moonlighting as contractors.
Major changes must go beyond simply cutting the number of executives and move toward deeper structural cuts that reduce the number of management layers and introduce a two-tier compensation system that distinguishes true executives from senior professionals. Adding new tools for recruiting and retaining employees will allow for the import of private sector best practices, as well as a more flexible set of pension and benefit options.
Major changes will also be aimed at reducing the concentration of federal service in the capital from the current percentage (about 40) to a target of two-thirds not in Ottawa/Gatineau.
Serious change will have to tackle the vexing and difficult legislative reforms that previous governments have launched. The Access to Information Act and the Employment Equity Act are outdated and in need of a major software update. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Accountability Act, which needs to be updated to meet the goals of the 2020s.
Major transformation will require the ambitious use of AI to assist and enhance internal government functions, particularly human resources, finance, information management and procurement, so that the pace of work can be accelerated and resources directed to their best use. Greater openness and engagement is needed about the impact on jobs, as well as tools for retraining and adjustment.
Greater candor is also needed about the implications of new artificial intelligence tools for language translation and interpretation, as well as rules regarding the language of work. Serious ambitions for digital government will mean much greater investment in the underlying data architecture and information resources.
Serious government reform will involve deep structural and legislative changes to individual organizations.
It's already been decided where to start, but a good list of candidates might include Canada Post, CBC, the RCMP, the Coast Guard and a constellation of “central agencies.”
Perhaps most importantly, the government has correctly identified the new, ongoing level of uncertainty and change we have entered. Canada needs a much more robust supply chain of ideas, not just in terms of policy, but also in terms of implementation and implementation. We invest more in research into crop rotation than into how the vast and complex public sector could work better. There are many options, including a Build Better Government fund for external research and dialogue, a new government technology advisory body, and perhaps reviving Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Public Service Advisory Committee. Collaborative efforts can be made with other levels of government in our federation that are facing similar challenges.”
Our sovereignty, security, prosperity and quality of life will require that the rhetoric and ambitions of “government transformation” be translated into bold and often controversial action in the coming months. Let's not let the sense of urgency fade.
Michael Wernick is the Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management at the University of Ottawa and former Clerk of the Privy Council.
