Canadian Government Executive - Volume 27 - Issue 02

GOVERNMENT 26 / Canadian Government Executive // March/April 2021 A ‘WONK’ IS SOMEONE WHO ‘TAKES AN ENTHUSIASTIC OR EXCESSIVE INTEREST IN THE SPECIALIZED DETAILS OF A PARTICULAR SUBJECT OR FIELD...’ T oday, the main topic of public administration wonks (and there are not a lot of us: the odd former Clerk of the Privy Council, aca- demics, op-ed journalists, a politician or two and think tanks such as the Institute on Gov- ernance) relates to the role of government following the pandemic. The future and appropriate role of govern- ment should matter to all citizens rather than just public administration wonks. Canadians are starting to contemplate a world follow- ing the pandemic, and if government gets it wrong and does not match citizen expecta- tions or achieve much-needed results, public trust in its value proposition will continue to fall, putting social cohesion and economic growth at risk. The future role for government can be ex- plored with a relatively narrow focus (e.g. when and where can my family get vacci- nated; is the vaccine safe? how will my job or business survive?) or more broadly (e.g. what is the appropriate role of public govern- ment in a democratic society going through considerable change and turmoil?). The two are clearly related, but given the context we face today, the focus needs to be on the latter. No one knows what the future will bring, but there is consensus on one thing: its chal- lenges will be great. The Millennium Project lists 15 challenges ranging from global eth- ics to the need for better global decision- making. An IPSOS report called Shaping 2025 and Beyond offers three scenarios for the future, noting that ‘the power of the state remains dominant’ in each one. It can be argued that ‘big government’ is needed to address the challenges we face. A Globe and Mail article by Kevin Lynch, for- mer vice-chair of BMO and former Clerk of the Privy Council and Paul Deegan, CEO of Deegan Public Strategies and former deputy executive director of the National Economic Council at the White House argues that the return of big government is as a result of ‘(p)ublic angst about globalization, climate change, inequality, digital giants, data pri- vacy and geopolitical threats’. Another argument for big government’s return argues that it proved its value dur- ing the pandemic crisis. Certainly, in the early days of COVID-19, Canadian gov- ernments were credited with working to- gether with common purpose and with moving quickly and taking risks in order to achieve results. The bloom has gone from this rose-coloured analysis. The inability to follow models and to coordinate vaccine acquisition with distribution among levels of government, with different approaches coming from just about every province, has exposed real weaknesses in the operation of Canadian federalism. That being said, few Canadians would have wanted to leave their fates in the hands of an unaccountable private sector when it came to achieving the goals of buying (at the time unknown) vaccines, creating and spending billions on pandemic-mitigating income-replacement programs, determining priority needs, set- ting up clinics, and, in short, preparing to return to normal. Questions about the role of government in BY TOBY FYFE our lives go back to Plato and his view that political order, built on justice, is required to manage diversity and resolve conflicting in- terests. Today with the rise of populism and the growing influence of the political right, there is a growing belief that any intrusion of government that limits personal freedom – even if for the collective good – is too much: consider the protest placard reading ‘My Body, My Choice, No to Mandatory Masks’. If we are to counter growing populism, renewing trust will be key. The OECD de- fines trust as “(h)olding a positive percep- tion about the actions of an individual or an organization.” It then lists five indicators of trust in government: reliability, responsive- ness openness and inclusiveness, integrity, and fairness. The gold standard of trust measurement, the Edelman Trust Barometer, tells us that in Canada, after a blip in March 2020, trust in all institutions, including government, is down. It also tells us that there is a ‘trust in- equality gap’, with a 9-point trust differential between the informed public and the mass population, the latter being those who in- creasingly see government as irrelevant to their needs. Why does all this matter? If citizens do not trust government, its ability to act is compromised. Confidence in its ability to address the multiple, interrelated, and com- plex problems we face, such as recovering after the pandemic, rebuilding the economy, providing services efficiently, bringing to- gether different viewpoints fairly and open- ly, adding value to society and the economy THE FUTURE OF GOVERNMENT