I

INTRODUCTION

...the policy for renewal set out in the White Paper will equip the Public Service to serve Canada and Canadians into the 21st Century .  ¹

The First Report

In December 1989, the Prime Minister announced the Government's intention to reform and renew the Public Service of Canada to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In December l990, the Government issued a White Paper setting out principles and specific objectives to guide the process of reform .  ²   The White Paper called for an annual report by the Clerk of the Privy Council "on the state of the Public Service in general, and for the next five years on the implementation of Public Service 2000 in particular." This is the first such Report.

I have been closely identified with Public Service 2000. That is entirely consistent with my role as head of the Public Service. Like my predecessors, I am responsible for advising the Prime Minister and the Government on the Public Service as a whole, and on measures that may be required to ensure its continued vitality and relevance to Canada.

This Report derives from that responsibility. It is a personal statement, setting out my own views on the Public Service today and where it is headed. It reflects the values and traditions of the Public Service as I understand them. It speaks to problems and challenges as I see them before us.

The Report is accompanied by a second volume that describes in much greater detail than would be possible here the many different dimensions of public service renewal in departments and agencies throughout the government. That companion volume, entitled Public Service 2000: A Report on Progress, fulfils the other half of the White Paper commitment to a public accounting of progress on Public Service 2000.

The Report on Progress contains dozens of examples of what has been achieved by individuals and groups in all parts of government to improve service to the public and maintain a professional Public Service for the future. I would hope these examples will not only inform the reader, but also inspire other public servants to use their energy and imagination to achieve similar progress in their departments.

Recipients of the Report

To whom is this report addressed?

• First, to the Prime Minister  who, as head of government, carries ultimate responsibility to Parliament for the programs and services provided by the Government to the people of Canada. It was the Prime Minister who in December 1989 launched the process of public service reform and renewal known as Public Service 2000.

• To Ministers ,  who are responsible for the programs and services for which Canadians pay taxes. As much as any member of the public, Ministers depend on the quality and timeliness of the services - the advice and the support - that are provided to them by the Public Service.

• To Members of Parliament, who are responsible for holding Ministers to account for their management of government.

• To public servants ,  who are both the authors and the subjects of public service reform. They have perhaps the most obvious stake in what changes are made to their workplace, and in better ways to deliver programs and services to Canadians.

Most important, this Report speaks to the interests and concerns of the Canadian public.

Canadians need and want the many thousands of different programs and services provided by the federal government in almost every area of Canadian life. Canadians have a major stake in the quality and effectiveness of Canada's Public Service. They will be the ultimate judges of the extent to which our project of renewal is a success.

Where are we today?

1991 was a difficult year for Canada, and for the Public Service. The current process of constitutional renewal preoccupies federal and provincial governments and raises concerns in the minds of all Canadians about the future shape of their country. Governments and their employees have had to live with continuing fiscal restraint, with all its implications for diminished program resources and more difficult relations between management and labour.

This is not an easy time to reform institutions or to try to renew a spirit of service and excellence in an institution as large as the Public Service. Yet despite the obstacles, and despite events such as the 1991 public service strike, I am still able to report genuine progress in reform and renewal across a broad front of activity in all parts of government. This is shown clearly in the dozens of examples cited in the pages of the companion volume to this Report.

Are we progressing as fast as I would like ?  No, but steady progress is being made and I believe that the process of change now has its own momentum, quite independent of those of us at the centre of government. Reform continues because individual employees, at all levels, understand the need to refashion their workplace, and to refocus their efforts on service. That in itself is a major accomplishment.

Has the Public Service been transformed in the 18 months since the publication of the White Paper ?  No, but that would be unreasonable to expect. I will say that the process of transformation is under way, and that the Public Service of the year 2000 will be very different from the one in which we are working today:

• it will be doing those things that only government can and must do;

• it will be more representative than it is today of the Canadian population it serves;

• it will contain people with different skills, including current employees with new skills, working in organizations of different size and structure than the traditional department;

• most important, it will be led and managed in a new way: one that is more oriented to service and to results and much more aware of the importance of individual initiative in contributing to improvements and efficiencies.

Throughout all these changes, I am confident that the Public Service will be guided, as it is today, by its traditional values of professionalism, political neutrality and service.

Are we now doing business in a fundamentally different way ?  No, but we are changing the way we do business - we are more focused on cost and value for money, increasingly oriented to results, and more receptive to innovation. Over time we will be serving Canadians differently and better.

Do all public servants understand the need for renewal and the direction which that renewal ought to take? Not yet, but that is because in the end people change themselves, and that takes time.

The essence of Public Service 2000 is to change the way people in the Public Service see themselves and their work. In this respect, Public Service 2000 is really a very simple idea, though it has perhaps taken us all a while to realize just what it was we were aiming toward. Our objective is to give all employees the encouragement and the tools they need, so that they can use their ingenuity to do the best possible job for Canadians. This is what I mean by a "change of culture." Getting to that new culture is what Public Service 2000 is all about.

What we have achieved to date in this process of renewal is due to the dedication of many thousands of individual employees working at all levels of the Public Service. It also reflects the leadership and commitment of managers who can see that to provide the best possible service to Canadians they must put their trust in the people who work for them. Only by investing in people, and by encouraging initiative, can we meet the challenges that lie before government and the Public Service in the years to come.

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