Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22 - Issue 8

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30 / Canadian Government Executive // October 2016
The Last Word David Zussman
A t the end of August, when most Canadians were enjoy-
ing their summer vacations, Prime Minister Trudeau
made a number of significant changes to the structure
and composition of his cabinet committees. This move
was not unexpected given that the government has been in office
for almost one year and the Prime Minister and his staff have had
ample opportunity judge the effectiveness of the cabinet system
they implemented when the Government was sworn in on No-
vember 4, 2015.
This is a government in a big hurry to meet the high expecta-
tions that it has carefully nurtured among Canadians. To date, it
has initiated more than 120 consultations in diverse policy areas
and the Prime Minister likes to remind Canadians of his policy
priorities. However, time flies quickly in the life of a government
and, as a result, the election gurus in the Liberal party of Canada
can sense that the window is closing on some of their more am-
bitious and complex policy initiatives such as climate change,
health care reform, and trade agreements.
Given the new sense of urgency, this is a good time for a reset
and the Prime Minister has taken the important first step in re-
structuring his government by making some crucial changes to
his decision-making process.
In this regard, the PrimeMinister has made four consequential ad-
justments to the structure and mandate of his Cabinet committees.
• The Cabinet committee on Open and Transparent Government
was merged with the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Af-
fairs and renamed the Cabinet Committee on Open Transpar-
ent Government and Parliament, thus making the explicit link
between open government and parliamentary reform.
• He created a Cabinet Committee on Litigation Management
and appointed Dominic LeBlanc as its first chair, sending the
unmistakable signal that there is a need to corral the spiraling
costs of legal and other costs of litigation.
• The Cabinet committee on Inclusive Growth, Opportunities
and Innovation has been renamed the Cabinet Committee on
Growing the Middle Class to refocus the committee’s and citi-
zens’ attention on the middle class which, at this point, will be
the battle ground for the next federal election.
• The former Committee on Defense Procurement and the Sub-
committee on Canada US relations have been given full com-
mittee status to emphasize the need to make decisions about
key procurement acquisitions and to prepare for a newly elect-
ed president in November.
Collectively, these changes signal the emerging priorities of this
government and also underscore the Prime Minister’s ongoing
commitment to the involvement of as many of his ministers as
possible in decision-making. As a result of these changes, the Min-
istry now includes 11 cabinet committees which range in mem-
bership size from 7 to 13 members. By way of comparison with
previous administrations, the current committee system stands
in stark contrast to Jean Chrétien’s government which used only
four permanent committees over its ten years.
While the Prime Minister has resisted the temptation to create
an executive committee such as a Priorities and Planning used
by his predecessor, the refashioned Agenda, Results and Commu-
nications Committee effectively plays that role with one special
twist. By linking agenda setting and policy outcomes (results), the
Prime Minister has forced his government to look seriously at the
effectiveness of programs and against their forward agenda. The
new evaluation policy that Minister Scott Brison released in Au-
gust further underscores the government’s intention to scrutinize
program outcomes.
The efforts to link program outcomes to future spending deci-
sions is not a new concept within the Federal government where
earlier versions failed because prime ministers at the time were
not committed to eliminating or downscaling ineffective pro-
grams. Prime Minister Trudeau has placed himself at the head of
the table by owning this latest effort to attack underperforming
programs.
These changes also represent a vote of confidence that the
Prime Minister has in his colleagues and also signals that these
11 cabinet committees will do the heavy lifting for his govern-
ment. In particular, the new Committee on Transparent Govern-
ment and Parliament is being chaired by Carla Qualtrough, an
already busy minister, who is being asked to resolve one of the
most complex policy files that the government will deal with dur-
ing its mandate.
It remains to be seen whether Prime Minister Trudeau feels that
he needs to shuffle new players into his Cabinet to replace those
who have not yet delivered on his agenda. Since Cabinet shuffles
are very consequential to those involved, moving Ministers in and
out of Cabinet is more difficult personally for the Prime Minister
than tinkering with the machinery of government. As a conse-
quence, a decision to make changes to the cabinet will reveal a lot
about the prime minister’s management style and his assessment
of the performance of his Cabinet team.
David Zussman is a Senior Fellow in the Graduate School
of Public and International Affairs at the University of
Ottawa and is Research Advisor to the Public Sector
Practice of Deloitte.
Reinvigorating Cabinet Committees
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