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PUBLIC SERVICE RENEWAL

I. INTRODUCTION

In accordance with its parliamentary mandate, the Standing Committee on Government Operations has seen the need to monitor the developments in Public Service renewal during the course of the Thirty-fifth Parliament and to report to the House on its observations to date.

In the fall of 1996, our Committee invited expert witnesses from the central agencies of the federal government as well as representatives from the public service unions to inform it of the current developments taking place within the federal Public Service. On February 19, 1997, the Clerk of the Privy Council Office shared with our Committee the findings of her Fourth Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada.

Our Committee recognizes the fact that the process of renewal within the Public Service will take several years to complete; however, in the Committee's view, it is necessary for Parliament to be kept apprised regularly (at least once a year) of the Government's progress in the renewal process. After seven hearings with expert witnesses and documentary evidence presented to it, our Committee wishes to inform the House of its major conclusions and observations to date.

II. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS

1. In the aftermath of Program Review, deficit cutting, and downsizing, the Government must differentiate between core (or essential) programs and non-core (or non-essential) programs and reorganize its departmental programs into a renewed Public Service that will implement government policies and deliver high quality services to Canadians.

2. In the light of the demographics of the current Public Service, its aging, its loss of knowledge and experience from downsizing and early departures and retirement, the Government must set a strategy for the next 5 to 10 years to revitalize the federal Public Service with new partners and new personnel.

3. The Government must make, as its top priority, the La Relève initiative led by the Clerk of the Privy Council Office and declare its intentions at an early date.

4. The other initiatives to revitalize the Public Service should be proceeded with immediately, including:

5. A new framework for improved accountability and greater transparency must be established as soon as possible by the Government and its partners in order to assure the various stakeholders, public and private, of greater access to information on the performance and results of public programs and services.

III. RECOMMENDATION

Your Committee strongly recommends to the House that the Standing Committee on Government Operations in the Thirty-sixth Parliament will give serious consideration to the follow-up of the major conclusions and observations of this progress Report, and review on a regular basis the progress made by the Government on its initiatives to revitalize the federal Public Service.

IV. COMMITTEE'S OBSERVATIONS

A. Progress to Date

B. Need to Clarify the Essential Programs of Government

C. Need for Renewal in the Public Service

D. La Relève Initiative

E. Other Key Initiatives to revitalize the Public Service

F. Improved Accountability and Transparency

A. Progress to Date

1. Our Committee took note of the Government's progress in deficit cutting since 1994 and its efforts to reduce the size of the federal Public Service through downsizing and major organizational restructuring. Through this and Early Departure and Early Retirement Incentive programs, the population of the Public Service has declined from 225,600 at the start of April 1995 to approximately 195,000 at the end of December 1996, thus assisting the government to achieve its expenditure goals.

2. Our Committee further noted that with continuous Program Reviews since 1994, departmental managers are implementing their business plans more carefully and are more cost conscious working with scarcer resources.

B. Need to Clarify the Essential Programs of Government

3. The President of the Treasury Board stated before our Committee that "the fundamental role of government consists of understanding the constantly changing needs of Canadians and responding by implementing the appropriate strategic framework. This could be called the essential function of government." Through three phases of Program Review, the Government has been progressively decentralising the decision-making process to those public and private agencies actually delivering government services because they are best able to respond quickly to the Canadian taxpayers' needs.

4. Through this process of Program Review, our Committee has observed that the government has been able to focus on core activities and thereby restore its capacity to do the things that only government can do. However, our Committee feels that these core (or essential) activities or programs should be clearly identified on an annual basis so that Parliament is made fully aware of who is responsible for what and that the "public interest", in the broadest sense, is adequately served.

5. It was noted by our Committee that by 1998-99, the government estimates that Program Review will have reduced program spending and the size of the federal government by a total of 22%. It is further estimated that from 1999 onwards, the government will save more than $3 billion a year in government payroll costs.

6. With a smaller federal public service, it is to be hoped that the "public interest" will be appropriately safeguarded with respect to work being carried out on behalf of the federal government, regardless of organizational form or employment status; and that the government may leave non-core programs for alternative service delivery to partnerships with other levels of government, non-governmental organizations, or the private sector in order to deliver high quality services to Canadians.

C. Need for Renewal in the Public Service

7. Several witnesses before our Committee have stated their serious concerns over the demographics of the current Public Service, its aging, and its loss of corporate knowledge and work experience from downsizing and early departures and retirement. By the year 2005, approximately 70% of all executives in the Public Service will be eligible for retirement thus creating a leadership vacuum. Furthermore, after six years of a salary freeze, many employees or potential candidates for the Public Service have been attracted to the private sector. In 1996, only 1% of public servants were under the age of 25 (compared with 15% in 1976).

8. Our Committee recognizes the skill, dedication and contribution of Public Service employees over the last several decades and sees the importance of sustaining and nurturing a competent, professional, representative and non-partisan Public Service in the years to come. However, as stated by the Public Service Commission before our Committee, "there is a critical need to develop key competencies for the future by finding an appropriate balance between targeted recruitment of new talent and investment in today's public servants by building on their experience and fostering new skills through continuous learning".

9. Our Committee endorses that statement and calls on the Government to set a strategy for the next 5 to 10 years to revitalize the federal Public Service with new partners and new personnel.

D. La Relève Initiative

10. Our Committee was pleased to note the response of the Clerk of the Privy Council to Public Service renewal through her initiative of La Relève. It clearly faces the challenge of re-building a modern and dynamic Public Service.

11. It is the Committee's view that the Government must declare its intentions at an early date to make La Relève a priority in revitalizing the Public Service of Canada in order to maintain its continued high reputation among the industrialized nations in the world.

12. Our Committee endorses the Clerk's action plan to seek the assistance of every government department and agency to undertake some serious human resources planning and to provide a series of initiatives and a corporate plan for renewal of the Public Service. We hope that a future Committee on Government Operations will monitor the progress of La Relève.

E. Other Key Initiatives to Revitalize the Public Service

13. Throughout the course of its hearings, several initiatives to revitalize the Public Service were presented to our Committee. They included improved service delivery standards, a framework for the use of information technology, a new expenditure management system, improved comptrollership, a new performance reporting system, improved evaluation and audit, a new job classification standard - to name only a few.

14. Our Committee was also informed of two short-term initiatives undertaken by the Public Service Commission of Canada, namely, the Accelerated Executive Development Program, and the Prequalification Process for Assistant Deputy Ministers. Our Committee noted with interest that the response to these two initiatives has been overwhelmingly favourable. However, at the same time, it is important to recognize the need for encouraging new talent, skills and key competencies at all levels of the Public Service and to ensure that fundamental principles and values - excellence, integrity, courage, honesty and representativeness - are maintained.

15. With respect to the other key initiatives, our Committee hopes that Public Service managers will respond expeditiously and implement in a timely manner.

F. Improved Accountability and Transparency

16. Our Committee holds the view that if the Public Service initiatives for renewal are to succeed, there must be a new framework for improved accountability and greater transparency established by the Government.

17. Public Service performance is disclosed for what it is through public reporting by those with performance responsibilities. In our Committee's view, it is reasonable that those in authority answer publicly and promptly for the results of their actions no matter whether they are in government or in the private sector.

18. With the advent of government restructuring, alternative services delivery, new partnerships and other key initiatives, including legislative actions, there must be established as soon as possible a framework of accountability to assure the various stakeholders, public and private, of greater access to information on performance and results of public programs and services. This is the essence of improved public transparency.

19. Our Committee concludes therefore that if such a framework of accountability is established, then all the aforegoing initiatives for Public Service renewal will succeed in revitalising the Public Service of Canada.

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