FEATURE Spring 2025 // Canadian Government Executive / 13 gets. They are usually driven by arbitrary savings targets and rarely result in investment to build future capabilities. Functional reviews today would be more successful if explicitly linked to the emergence of AI and other tools to augment services. Looking to the Future It is possible to get to a public service that is smaller, flatter, more productive, agile and capable. The way to get there is a mindful proactive approach to pruning and renewal that is as comprehensive as possible. The big difference with the spending resets of 1995 and 2012 is that AI and other digital technologies are already flowing through many occupations and functions. There will be opportunities to harness them to assist and augment the work of public servants. However, there has not yet been a candid conversation with a largely unionized workforce about how change will impact the number of staff and the training they will need. Any reset of the federal government in 2025 must incorporate the impact of AI and digital technologies into the discussion and the potential to transform not just external services but especially the internal workings of the public service. Broad spending reviews don’t usually provide the setting for a deep dive into what should be done to renovate a specific federal entity. Examples where this is arguably needed, if not long overdue, include the RCMP, the CBC, Canada Post, and the Coast Guard. There is also a policy case to renovate the civil defence role of the military and to create new foreign intelligence capabilities. It is also time to review the constellation of central agencies (PCO, Finance and Treasury Board) to make sure they are still fit for purpose. Each renovation is worth taking the time to do it right. The Climate Change Analogy The best way to get to a smaller, leaner, flatter and more focused federal public sector is not through short term measures and adhoc reforms. It would be to set an ambitious medium range target and let smart people work the problem and innovate, especially with technology and processes. The analogy could be something like a “20 by 30” target. You could set a goal to reduce the size of the civilian federal workforce by 20 percent by 2030. You could also set a target for the share in the National Capital Region. Currently that share is just over 40 percent. You could set a medium range target of “one third in the capital” to serve as both ceiling and floor and plan to spread federal jobs and presence more widely across Canada. Then within those macro parameters for size your government should attack programs, functions and structures simultaneously. It would be a mistake to aim for a quick harvest of savings. Instead, a serious reform would make allowances for adjustment and implementation costs if the direction toward the medium-term outcome is right and progress is being made. There would be many ways to set up a path to success. Lessons from the past are that it would be essential to make sure there is constant engagement and a robust change management strategy because resistance is inevitable, from within and outside the public service. Canada seriously underinvests in generating a supply chain of ideas and innovations related to the biggest most complex set of institutions in the country. If you are to avoid piecemeal incrementalism and overcome inevitable resistance you will need to strengthen that supply chain. You should revive the Advisory Council on the Public Service, create a new Parliamentary Committee focused on capabilities and readiness for the future of the public service, create an Advisory Body specific to technology in government, and create an innovation fund to stimulate research and debate. The public service cannot reform itself. It will need help from political leaders who will be ready to provide focus and direction and to own and defend the difficult choices that will have to be made. It is your public service now. Michael Wernick is one of Canada’s most experienced and influential public sector leaders with a 38-year career in the federal public service, including 17 years in the community of Deputy Ministers and culminating in his role as the 23rd Clerk of the Privy Council from 2016 to 2019. Since his retirement, he has worked as a consultant and adjunct professor, and in 2022, he became the chairholder of the Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management at the University of Ottawa. Wernick is the author of Governing Canada: A Guide to the Tradecraft of Politics (UBC Press, 2021) and is renowned for his expertise in Indigenous issues, intergovernmental relations, governance, and public sector management.
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