Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 03

Our mission is to contribute to excellence in public service management EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief | George Ross george@promotivemedia.ca MANAGING Editor | Marcello Sukhdeo marcello@promotivemedia.ca COPY EDITOR | James Brandon COLUMNISTS | ANDREW GRAHAM JEFFREY ROY HARVEY SCHACHTER ALISON TAYLOR LORI TURNBULL JOHN WILKINS EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD DENISE AMYOT, PENNY BALLANTYNE, Jim Connell, Michael Fenn, Lana Lougheed, John Milloy, Vic Pakalnis, Robert Shepherd, Andrew Treusch, David Zussman Sales & Events Vice President, Sales | Terri Pavelic 905-727-3875 x2 terri@promotivemedia.ca Director, Media Content & Events | Laskey S. Hart 905-727-3875 x5 laskey@promotivemedia.ca ART & PRODUCTION ART DIRECTOR | Elena Pankova elena@promotivemedia.ca Subscriptions and Address Changes Circulation Services | Mary Labao (905) 841-7389 circulation@promotivemedia.ca General Inquiries 1-226 Edward Street, Aurora, ON, L4G 3S8 Phone 905-727-3875 Fax 905-727-4428 www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca corporate Group Publisher | John Jones john@promotivemedia.ca Publisher’s Mail Agreement: 40052410 ISSN 1203-7893 Canadian Government Executive magazine is published 10 times per year by Navatar Press. All opinions expressed herein are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or any person or organization associated with the magazine. Letters, submissions, comments and suggested topics are welcome, and should be sent to george@promotivemedia.ca Reprint Information Reproduction or photocopying is prohibited without the publisher’s prior written consent. High quality reprints of articles and additional copies of the magazine are available through circulation@promotivemedia.ca . Privacy Policy: We do not sell our mailing list or share any confidential information on our subscribers. We acknowledge the financial support of the Govern- ment of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca 6 / Canadian Government Executive // May/June 2018 By the time this edition of CGE “hits the stands”, a new government will be in place in On- tario, and the drama of that election will be in the history books. But for public servants, the conclusion of an election signals the start of a transition period. It will begin the process of ministerial briefings, building trust with newly elected officials and their staff, starting the conversations on policy and fiscal priorities and in some cases explaining the basic machin- ery of government. All of this is happening against a backdrop of departmental realignment, new decision-making processes and organizational change. This transition is the culmination of a more extended period of preparation that starts well in advance of the election. During the “Writ Period”, when politicians are consumed with campaigns and election strategy, and the rules and conventions guiding political activity and public service work, a great deal of transition planning is completed by the civil service. Platforms are analyzed, program overviews and fiscal plan presentations are developed, which are documented in massive binders of briefing materials sitting ready to deliver on “Day 1” of post-election. Spearheading this time of transition is one of the roles that government executives play, which is not properly understood or appreciated by citizens. Transition is a time when the basic tenets of Public Service can be challenged, but when a new government benefits the most from professional, independent and evidence-based advice. None of the planning and preparation can adequately prepare us for transition though, because newly elected government members have just spent the last several weeks going door-to-door engaging with citizens in the most fundamental manner. It is this engagement and understanding of what’s really on the minds of citizens affects how they approach their new mandates and how they interact with public servants in those early days. In this edition of CGE , we explore innovation in Citizen Engagement. The relevance of the work we do for the citizens of Canada and in support of our democratically elected political masters goes well beyond the transition phase. Public services all over the world are asking questions on how to better meet citizen needs. Questions like: how can we get more authen- tic citizen perspective into our policy and program development; can we better engage with communities to facilitate reconciliation and serve marginalized citizens; are there better governance and accountability mechanisms that will raise public confidence in our insti- tutions and how can we move to new digital models of government while protecting the security of the citizens we serve? The good news is that Canada is at the forefront of the innovation thinking when it comes to Citizen Engagement and hopefully some of the articles in this edition will encourage more thoughtful innovative approaches at all levels of government. Also, in this issue, we have a couple of articles on the need for innovation in Public Sec- tor Procurement and we have a feature Interview with Patrick Borbey, the President of the Public Service Commission of Canada, who has been in the role for a year now. I do hope you enjoy this edition and as always, feedback and suggestions are welcome. And on that note, I’m calling on all CGE readers to think about someone in Public Service who you think we should profile as a “Game Changer” (a new CGE feature). There are thou- sands of inspiring public servants across Canada and at all levels of government who have had an enormous impact in their communities and organizations and who have profoundly shaped our public sector institutions. I need to hear about those Game Changers in your world deserving of CGE recognition and whose story will inspire other public service lead- ers. I can be reached at george@promotivemedia.ca . George Ross, Editor-in-Chief web editor’s note