Publications

I

A Canadian Model of
Public Sector Reform

In recent years, an important chapter has been written in Canada about redefining the role of the federal government and about reforming public sector institutions to better serve Canada and Canadians. This chapter was built on 10 years of effort to achieve a consensus among citizens on the need for change in order to live within society’s collective means. Public sector reform was carried out in a typically Canadian way — calmly, competently, without much fanfare. Today, the results are a major realignment of role and a balanced budget. These were achieved while maintaining a strong economic performance and preserving a quality of life that is among the best in the world.

The story of public sector reform in Canada deserves to be told. It is a story about democracy and the role of government in a modern society. It is a story of partnership between elected officials and public servants. It is a story about the importance of the public sector in a well-performing global society.

The reform efforts of many countries are well known. People interested in public administration and public sector reform have studied or heard about the "U.K. model," the "New Zealand model" or the "Australian model." We know of the efforts of some countries to separate policy and service delivery, to establish "next-step agencies," to borrow best practices from the private sector, tofocus on clients and client needs. Every developed country is facing similar circumstances. Each is responding in its own way, and all are learning from one another.

The "Canadian model" is less well known. While none of its elements are uniquely Canadian, taken together they amount to an approach that is sufficiently different from all the others to warrant attention.

The Canadian model is based on the belief that government and government institutions are essential to a well-performing society. While it rejects the philosophy that less government is synonymous with better government, the Canadian model recognizes the importance of affordable government. It endorses the idea that democracy working side by side with a market economy is the key to national prosperity and the well-being of citizens.

The Canadian model asserts that public sector reform must start by examining the role that government is expected to play in the future. It recognizes that public sector reform must be anchored in a reasonable understanding of the strategic contribution that government is expected to make to the prosperity of Canada and to the well-being of its citizens. It recognizes that government cannot act alone. It acknowledges that the role of government can vary depending on the circumstances: it must be able to lead, to play the role of catalyst, to build partnerships, to create strategic alliances, and to rely on the commitment of all those who are willing and able to contribute to the collective good.

The Canadian model affirms that a well-performing public sector requires both a strong policy capacity and a modern service delivery function. Over the past few years, the public service has sought to strengthen its capacity for policy research, analysis and development and, at the same time, to modernize its approach to service delivery. Along the way it discovered that both functions were facing very similar challenges.

In service delivery, it means integrating services among departments and among governments, building partnerships and strategic alliances and exploiting the potential of information technology to better meet the needs of citizens. In policy, it means taking a broader, more comprehensive approach to the public interest, ahead of the departmental interest; working co-operatively to develop more integrated policy responses; and cultivating more open, participatory and transparent policy development processes.

The Canadian model rejects the notion that "one size fits all." It encourages experimentation and the emergence of a diversity of institutional models to put before decision makers. Portfolio management is a recent Canadian innovation. It recognizes that a minister is responsible to Parliament for a family of organizations, and it encourages greater flexibility within each organization and greater cohesion among the organizations reporting to a single minister.

The Canadian model does not accept that the policy and service delivery functions should be separated as a universal principle. Instead, it follows a more pragmatic route in which separating the policy and service delivery functions is contemplated whenever it can be demonstrated that it will bring about substantive gains in the quality of service to citizens.

The Canadian model recognizes the importance of a well-performing, professional, non-partisan public service. It recognizes that public servants have a key role to play in shaping policies and delivering services. The Canadian model recognizes that to build a modern and vibrant professional, non-partisan public service, it is necessary to commit as much time and energy to human resources management as to policy development or service delivery. It recognizes that to retain, motivate and attract a corps of talented and dedicated public servants requires profound change. The public service must be able to provide its people with the breadth of knowledge and experience necessary to advise and serve in a modern and global environment.

The Canadian model requires leadership from both elected and appointed officials. Political leadership has been essential to realign the role of government, to ensure balance and fairness and to stay the course over a number of years. Public service leadership has been relied upon to put bold and creative ideas before ministers, to marshal support for change and to ensure smooth implementation. Each group has played its role well and all have reason to be proud of the results they have accomplished together.

An important chapter was written in Canada over the last few years, but this is no reason for complacency. The results to date are no guarantee of progress in the future. They were accomplished in a unique period when there was a broad consensus on the need to realign the role of government and reduce expenditures to live within society’s collective means. Can the conditions that made it possible to achieve so much progress so quickly be sustained over a longer period? Only time will tell.

Ministers and their officials have laid the basis on which they can now envisage an even more ambitious agenda. As we enter the new millennium, Canada is now well positioned to develop new relationships between government and citizens and to explore new ways to strengthen parliamentary democracy and its supporting public sector institutions.

During the last decade, a lot was said about the impact of globalization in a market economy. Over the next decade, we can expect to hear a lot more about the importance of democratic and public sector institutions in a well-performing global society.

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