FEATURE Whichever timing you choose, you basically have two options regarding the public service– a passive agenda where issues come to you and your decisions gradually take you down a path – or a proactive agenda where you mindfully chart a course for the public service and spend effort and political capital to get there. A passive agenda? These issues are coming at you, like it or not Technology The public sector is already well into another wave of disruptive technological change. You are inheriting the legacy of previous initiatives to incorporate digital technologies, more sophisticated and strategic approaches to data and information, and the early applications of artificial intelligence (AI). You have inherited the legacy of an Open Government agenda, the 2021 Benefits Delivery Modernization program 2022’s “Digital Ambition”, the efforts in 2023 and 2024 by a Minister of Citizen Services, and the October 2024 Guidelines on the use of generative AI. You will have to decide how much ambition and financial investment to commit to this agenda. You will soon have to decide whether you are willing to confront less comfortable issues raised by the emergent technologies, such as job reductions or changes to requirements for bilingualism as AI tools for translation and interpretation continue to improve. There will be a lot to learn, for better and worse, from how other countries are faring. Collective Bargaining and Compensation As an employer you are still at the bargaining table today with a few unions and will have to quickly be ready for another broad round of negotiations. The agreements signed after the strike of 2023 expire soon. Those agreements included commitments to work with public service unions on issues such as hybrid work and diversity and inclusion. The main bargaining issue this time is less likely to be about wages catching up to inflation and more about job security and the algorithm for layoffs, euphemistically called “workforce adjustment policies”. There are other compensation issues where you will have to decide whether to stick to the status quo or pursue reforms. Performance pay for executives and Governor-in-Council appointees draws regular criticism from right wing journalists and union leaders and arguably needs a software update. The defined benefit pension plans are out of step with most of the private sector workforce, and the financing has drawn attention from the Parliamentary Budget Officer. There have been calls to provide more flexible bundles of non-salary benefits such as health and disability insurance. The sick leave plan is badly out-of-date with current best practices and needs replacement. There is a strong case to add retention and recruitment bonuses to the compensation toolkit to ensure key skillsets are acquired in a competitive labour market and reduce the need to hire contractors. Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) You will have to choose between advice that the emphasis by your predecessor on DEI has gone too far and created “woke culture” and a drag on effectiveness, and advice that it hasn’t gone far enough. The status quo won’t likely hold for long. Your predecessor failed to update 1980s vintage employment equity legislation after three years of consultations and you will need to decide whether to resume this effort. A staring point will be what to do with the 2024 report of the Review Task Force, and what to do with the DEI inspired changes in recent years that are now deeply embedded into procurement and many aspects of human resources management. You will also have to decide how to respond to the next wave of legal challenges and advocacy by employee representative groups. While a class action launched by Black employees was not certified, some new legal action seems likely. Productivity Your predecessor launched a Task Force on Public Sector Productivity in 2024. You will have the opportunity to review their advice and to decide whether to invest further effort in this initiative. A serious approach to productivity would require delving into deep rooted issues where there are no quick fixes, including sluggish staffing and procurement, chronic underinvestment in training, the thickness of middle management, and badly neglected information management that hold back aspirations for digital government. The first set of decisions about how you structure your government will imprint on all subsequent decisions. You will be assigning the more than 300 federal government organizations to Ministers for the purposes of accountability and reporting to Parliament, and you have options to restructure some of the departments and agencies as you do so. Spring 2025 // Canadian Government Executive / 11
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