I

INTRODUCTION

The Wider Context of Renewal

In my capacity as Head of the Public Service, I am pleased to present this Second Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada. The requirement to submit an annual report is one of the new provisions of the amended Public Service Employment Act, which was proclaimed into law in the spring of 1993.

As the law requires, this Report sets out my views on the state of the Public Service. It describes some of the key events that have affected the Public Service over the past 18 months, ¹  and it recounts progress on the longer-term process of restructuring and renewal. It also provides an opportunity for me to set out what I regard as the principal challenges that lie ahead for the Public Service, both in the short term and over time.

The context within which this Report is set, and without which the current state of the Public Service cannot properly be assessed, is the continuing process of change and renewal that has been at work in the Public Service of Canada over the past decade and indeed well before that. ²   The most recent major initiative in this regard has been Public Service 2000, an initiative launched by then-Prime Minister Mulroney in 1989. ³   This system-wide process of reform and renewal was intended to prepare the Public Service for the challenges of the 21^st century. It served as the focus of the Clerk's first Annual Report on the Public Service in 1992. ⁴

The guiding principles and major objectives of  Public Service 2000 were set out in the Government's 1990 White Paper on the Renewal of the Public Service. ⁵   The principles and values of  Public Service 2000 have been endorsed in broad terms by the new Government. They include recognition of the value of skilled, adaptable employees; a focus on service; and a commitment to continuous learning and innovation within organizations. Those principles and values remain valid today as guideposts for change and renewal in the Public Service.

The process of almost continual change that has characterized the Public Service in recent years has not been unique to Canada, nor to the federal government. We have seen major reforms in the public services of the United Kingdom, Australia, France, New Zealand, several Canadian provinces and, most recently, a new and high-profile undertaking in the United States led by Vice-President Gore. ⁶    These various initiatives, while distinctive in some respects, share a common origin - the need for governments to adapt to global forces of change that have transformed the economies and societies of the entire world. They also share many common features - greater flexibility in organization, investment in human resources, modernization of personnel systems, a commitment to consultation and a general openness to ideas from outside government.

Only if we situate the current process of public service renewal in this international context can we fully appreciate the challenges we face here in Canada and the kinds of changes we will have to make if the Public Service is to remain an effective national institution.

Among the most significant of the forces bearing on the Public Service today is a growing scepticism in Canada about the value of public institutions, including the Public Service. This is a fact of public life in many countries, one to which not only politicians but also public servants must respond. As Head of the Public Service, I am gratified by the way in which the new Government has responded: the Prime Minister has made it clear, both inside government and publicly, that he values and respects the Public Service and that he expects his ministerial colleagues to work in a traditional relationship of closeness and trust with their officials. This certainly has been the characteristic of the Prime Minister's relationship with me and my senior colleagues.

Another factor that helps set the context for renewal, and that also conditions the working lives of individual employees, is the continuing pressure of fiscal restraint. Since 1984, there have been a dozen successive reductions in the operating budgets of departments. This continuing resource squeeze has made efficiency in operations more than an objective; it has become a necessity. In many areas, however, we are approaching the limits of what can be done to maintain programs and services at current levels without additional resources. This is one of the factors motivating the Government's recently announced program and efficiency reviews. ⁷   If the money is simply not there, or will not be there in the future, then governments will have to rethink what they are doing, and how. In the same spirit, the Government's review of overlap and duplication between the federal and provincial governments aims at fundamental decisions on what governments should be doing, at what level, and through what delivery mechanisms.

Governments, whether here in Canada or abroad, face new challenges in health and social policy, in dealing with issues of economic development in a globalized economy, and in responding to the needs of citizens affected by environmental or other changes over which they have little control. ⁸  At the federal level, it is the Public Service that is the principal instrument of government in responding to these emerging problems. Only if the Government has the benefit of the best possible advice and support, the most innovative policy ideas and the most efficient programs, can it respond adequately to the needs of its citizens. The Prime Minister has made a commitment to a real partnership with the Public Service, and his message has been very well received by all public servants. The Public Service is responding to this challenge with the professionalism that is to be expected of it.

The past year has been a difficult period for public servants. Change is always stressful, and in the last year we have undergone some of the most significant changes in organization ever witnessed in the Public Service of Canada. To the extent that change in government is controllable, it is largely a matter of political decision and responsibility. But I owe it both to the public and to my fellow public servants to set out what was done, and why I think the changes of the past year have positioned the Public Service to help our Government address the major issues facing Canada.

I am proud of the way in which public servants, in all departments and agencies of government, have dealt professionally and responsibly with the changes imposed on them over the past nine months. Despite the inevitable confusion and uncertainty created by organizational change, despite individual anxiety over jobs and careers, the men and women of the Public Service have delivered their programs with the same expertise and dedication that Canadians have always expected. Services were maintained in hundreds of federal offices across Canada; the cheques went out on time; advice went to Deputies and Ministers with the same care and expertise as before: and when a new Government took office, it found a loyal and professional body of public servants waiting and willing to serve it. That in itself is a testament to the quality of the men and women who make up this national institution.

____________________

[Table of Contents] [Next chapter]