CGE LEADERSHIP SERIES 22 / Canadian Government Executive / Spring 2025 As part of its Leadership Series, CGE held a special post-election panel on Federal Government Transition in a Time of Uncertainty: What does this mean for Canada’s public service? This was held on May 6th, at the Telfer School’s Executive Campus, University of Ottawa. Dr. Lori Turnbull, an editor at CGE Magazine, moderated a panel of three former senior federal public servants on this topic. Here is an edited version of that rich and deep conversation, covering everything from Prime Minister Carney’s governance style, to finding efficiencies in the public service, to Cabinet government. Lori Turnbull Thank you so much for coming. We’re going to switch a bit to talking about the public service. What does what does, the election mean for the public service? What does it mean, to be in a time of transition, also in a time of a lot of uncertainty? And so I think it’s really interesting that we’re having this conversation at the same time as the Prime Minister is getting ready to meet Donald Trump. I’m going to introduce you to our panelists who you know already. To my immediate right is Graham Flack. Obviously Graham is a former deputy minister of all kinds of things and fellow Nova Scotian. And, one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. To his right is Marta Morgan. Marta is a senior advisor at McMillan Vantage, and a former foreign affairs deputy minister and another one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. So you can see a panel theme here. And finally, Kevin Page, who is, the founder of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa and you guessed it, one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I’m going to ask the first. I’m going to ask the questions to everybody, but I’m going to, start with Graham on this one. So Prime Minister Carney wins a minority government. He is the incumbent in the sense that he was chosen as Liberal leader on March 9th, sworn in as prime minister, I think it was March 14th. Came back with a cabinet that was kind of looking like Trudeau’s cabinet. And then its prime minister for nine days, does a few things, has meetings internationally, talks to the premiers and then goes to election. So one of his campaign pitches was look at what I did in nine days. Now give me a full mandate. The public service is not used to him yet. He’s an incumbent, but not really because he wasn’t really there long enough to be able to give a sense of what governance under a Carney regime is going to be like. Can you give a sense of what’s the what is the mood? If you were there, how would you be feeling?What is the reaction to this? What is the sense of the climate around transition? What is this feeling like for the public service? Graham Flack So full disclosure, Mark recruited me to the Department of Finance in 2006 to do the international job. THE ELECTION: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT FOR GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVANTS Dr. Lori Turnbull Deputy Editor, Canadian Government Executive and Director of the School of Public Administration, Dalhousie University Graham Flack Senior Fellow at C.D. Howe Institute and former senior federal public servant including Secretary to the Treasury Board and Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development Marta Morgan Senior Advisor at McMillan Vantage and former senior federal public servant including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Minister of Immigration Kevin Page President and CEO, Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy BY CGE STAFF
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDI0Mzg=