Category: Renewal

Like all governments, the federal public service faces increasing demands for innovation, cost efficiency, organizational agility, responsiveness to the needs of citizens, and harnessing new technologies across organizations.

As a new assistant director in the Human Resources Branch at Canada Revenue Agency, I would like to share my thoughts on two topics that I am extremely passionate about: social leadership and a public servant’s pride.

John Manzoni, the head of the U.K. public service, will be the keynote speaker for APEX's annual Symposium, May 26-27.

What is the central challenge facing government institutions and societies in coming decades? We define this challenge as Digital Era Governance, where information knows few boundaries, power is dispersed, and authority and accountability need to be reconceived.

Last September the federal government announced a small business hiring credit. Asked to justify the policy, finance minister Joe Oliver cited analysis by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), a nonprofit that represents the interests of small and mid-size business owners.

We hear it often about the digital era: “Everything has changed.” We hear that new technologies, business models, and modes of thinking are not just interesting, but downright revolutionary.

I don’t think governments have changed fundamentally since Al Gore made that famous commitment 20 years ago. We’ve largely paved the cow path and I think we know what needs to be done: we need to change the whole architecture of government. We need to release raw data so that governments can become a platform where civil society, the private sector and other government agencies can self-organize to create public value.