Luciani: The rise of the progressive bureaucrat and the fall of the efficient state

2026/04/28 Leave a comment

A bit simplistic but the fundamental point, more public servants with experience in program delivery and client service than policy development.

And of course, previous generations of public servants reflected the attitudes of the day, whether respect to women, visible minorities, Indigenous, LGTBQ:

…Universities like to present policy training as politically neutral, but no school is neutral when its dominant assumptions are absorbed from the surrounding progressive culture in higher education.

Graduates with MPPs and MPAs are no different. They see the world through the values of their generation. They learn the language of inclusion and identity and bring those values to their work. When Statistics Canada asks in surveys what gender you were assigned at birth, you can be certain the department was influenced by a new generation of policy advisors. A public service staffed chiefly by people trained to think in slogans will inevitably produce a slogan-driven government.

Canada needs smart people less enamoured of theory and ideology, and more rooted in the unglamorous work of delivery. More importantly, we need to restore ministerial responsibility. MPs and ministers should be judged on what happens in their departments. And universities should stop imagining that another wave of credentialed policy analysts will repair what politics has allowed to decay.

Source: The rise of the progressive bureaucrat and the fall of the efficient state

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2025 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey

2026/04/20 Leave a comment

Ironic timing, released at the same time as the Fox ethics scandal:

…Fairness

In 2025, more than three quarters (76%) of employees agreed that the process of selecting a person for a position is done fairly, consistent with 2023 (77%).

Employees who perceived the selection process as unfair were asked to describe how. The main reasons cited were a perception that appointments in their work unit are not transparent, that they are based on “who you know” and that some appointees have benefitted from nepotism or favoritism.

Expanding on the perceptions of fairness in staffing processes, a new question on non-advertised appointments was introduced in 2025. Overall, 71% of employees agreed that non-advertised appointments are done fairly. The main reasons cited by respondents who perceived non-advertised appointments as unfair were that non-advertised appointments depend on who you know (74%) and that they are not transparent (70%).

Statements related to fairness20232025
Process of selecting a person for a position is done fairly77%76%
Non-advertised appointments are done fairlyn/a71%
Reasons2025
Non-advertised appointments depend on who you know74%
Non-advertised appointments are not transparent70%
Non-advertised appointments are not based on merit48%
Non-advertised appointments are never fair30%
Non-advertised appointments are not inclusive28%
Other12%

Employment equity and equity-seeking groups’ perceptions on fairness

With the exception of women, all employment equity groups expressed less positive perceptions than their respective comparator groups.

Employees identifying as two-spirit and intersex had less positive perceptions of both statements related to fairness compared to all other identities

Employees identifying as another gender had the least positive perceptions of fairness in the staffing process of all groups

Members of visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities had less positive perceptions of fairness in the staffing process than their respective comparator groups

Members of religious communities had less positive perceptions of fairness in the staffing process compared with employees who are not members of religious communities

Employees who are separated, divorced or widowed had less positive perceptions of fairness in the staffing process compared with employees who are married, living common-law or single

Employees identifying as asexual and pansexual had less positive perceptions of fairness compared with all other sexual orientations

Source: 2025 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey

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Yakabuski: A deputy minister’s ethics violation will further sap morale in the Canadian public service

2026/04/17 Leave a comment

Time to accept the inevitable. Hard to see how she can avoid resigning or retiring given the clear judgement, arrogance and obliviousness to MP concerns, impact on public service morale and overall credibility of deputies:

…Participants expressed that there appear to be few, if any, consequences for senior leaders who act in contravention of values and ethics, as compared to consequences imposed upon employees, particularly those who are members of racialized groups,” it found. 

To remedy the problem, the task team recommended that “deputy ministers ensure that obligations under the Values and Ethics Code, and departmental codes of conduct, are clear and are upheld with consequences for violations regardless of level or position.”

That recommendation has suddenly taken on new resonance in the wake of the federal Ethics Commissioner’s finding that Christiane Fox, one of the deputy ministers who made up the task team, violated the Conflict of Interest Act by using her position to influence a departmental decision to hire an acquaintance who was unqualified for the job.

In a 35-page report released last week, Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein concluded that as deputy minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in 2023, Ms. Fox used her authority to give an “old acquaintance” from university “preferential treatment, by ensuring he met with departmental officials quickly, seeking updates about his hiring, giving him internal information, and pushing for a higher job classification.”…

Merit-based hiring remains the bedrock of a professional public service. Ms. Fox appears to have lost sight of that principle. Her bosses must not. 

Source: A deputy minister’s ethics violation will further sap morale in the Canadian public service

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Deputy minister found breaching ethics rules says she was following diversity mandate

2026/04/13 Leave a comment

Sigh… Given the breach and how it undermines trust, arguably a resignable offence to demonstrate accountability:

Deputy minister of national defence Christiane Fox says she was trying to bring in outside perspectives when she influenced her former department to hire an acquaintance.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein published an investigation on Wednesday finding that Fox pressed Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to hire Björn Charles when she was deputy minister of that department in March 2023. 

Fox had known Charles since they were both athletes at university together, according to the report.

She said in a statement posted on the Defence Department’s website on Friday that she was “motivated by a genuine desire to bring in outside perspectives.”

“My efforts were focused on advancing diversity and inclusion across the public service, an objective explicitly set for deputy ministers,” she said.

“I approached that mandate with care and intent, including a focus on bringing in outside perspectives and voices that could help drive meaningful change. This included removing barriers that limited how talent was recognized both inside and outside government.”

Explanation not credible, report says

Von Finckenstein’s report noted that IRCC — which has reported problems with racism in the past — was ” focused on anti-racism, diversity and inclusion” while Fox was the deputy minister. But he didn’t find Fox’s explanation credible.

Source: Deputy minister found breaching ethics rules says she was following diversity mandate

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Treasury Board report shows employment equity not affected by early phases of public service job losses in 2024-25

2026/04/07 2 Comments

My assessment:

The most recent report on diversity in the public service says hiring dipped by 40 per cent last year as the bureaucracy began reversing course on a decade of significant growth. But this appears to have had limited impact on equity efforts.

New data on employment equity in the federal public service shows initial attempts to shrink the population had a limited effect on the proportions of equity-seeking groups. But one expert on public policy and governance says coming job cuts are “agnostic” to these efforts, and a large public-sector union says the government isn’t doing enough to ensure diversity is maintained amid sweeping job cuts.

“I can’t see evidence that minority groups are being penalized compared to majority groups,” said Andrew Griffith, a former public servant who was a director general of citizenship and multiculturalism at then-Citizenship and Immigration Canada….

Griffith noted concerns about job cuts in the public service hampering progress in employment equity, but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“Now, it might change in the current year, given the cutbacks are more significant this year,” said Griffith, referring to the approximately 24,000 public servants who have already received notice that their jobs might be at risk, and the some 9,000 jobs expected to be cut….

“The numbers don’t tell the whole story”: Turnbull

Lori Turnbull is a political science professor at Dalhousie University, a senior adviser at the Institute on Governance, and worked in the Privy Council Office from 2015 until 2017.

Speaking to The Hill Times, she said the high percentage of women “really makes it look like the public service is doing well,” in terms of equity among its ranks, but “that doesn’t really speak to what’s going on for other groups,” she said.

“I don’t think anybody would come away from that and think, ‘Oh, we better be worried because the share of women [being hired] decreased by three points,” Turnbull said, noting the high number of women in executive positions as well as the broader public service.

However, she noted the current spending review that is expected to shed thousands of jobs from the public service is “agnostic” to employment equity considerations.

“It just doesn’t really sound like there’s much co-ordination in that,” she said.

“The way they’re measuring [it] is by the numbers, by the money, and not by the function and the specific people,” she said.

“You get the numbers, and it doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Sean O’Reilly, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, one of the largest federal public service unions, said the government isn’t doing enough to protect equity-seeking groups from cuts.

“There are big concerns,” he said. “Some of the correlation we’ve seen in the past with cuts, and we fear that, we do fear that these groups will be unjustly affected by all these cuts.”

Source: Treasury Board report shows employment equity not affected by early phases of public service job losses in 2024-25 Paywall

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Lynch and Mitchell: The government must change in these three key ways to meet challenges of the moment

2026/04/02 Leave a comment

Usual excellent diagnostique as well as usual weak analysis of the how. Lynch was clerk when Service Canada’s more ambitious approach of service driving policy rather than the usual policy driven service was killed:

…The key operational culprit is complexity — the dense web of rules, reporting requirements and oversight mechanisms originally meant to safeguard the integrity of government operations but whose cumulative effect has been to make operational delivery slower, more cautious and less effective — at the cost of public confidence.

What is needed is a focus on operational simplification and end-to-end results. When there is too much oversight, or too little, results suffer. When the process itself becomes the benchmark, results become secondary. When accountability for delivery is opaque, results decline. When there are too many priorities at one time, results become a casualty. When there is too much centralization and second guessing, results deteriorate. It is tangible delivery results that the public wants to see.

These are incredibly challenging times. They require an urgent transformation of state capacity. To preserve our economic, political and territorial sovereignty, Canadians need a federal government operating at its very best.

Kevin Lynch is a former clerk of the Privy Council. Jim Mitchell is a former senior public servant in the Privy Council Office and Treasury Board. 

Source: The government must change in these three key ways to meet challenges of the moment | Opinion

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Across-the-board executive job cuts won’t address ‘staggering’ growth in bureaucracy’s upper ranks, says ex-civil servant 

2026/04/01 Leave a comment

In preparation for being interviewed, I developed some tables to highlight the impact, based upon this open data table: Population of the federal public service by executive level:

EX-1 and EX-4 impacted more than other levels. The other striking change is of course in the higher increase rates over the past 10 years of EX-2, EX-3 and EX-5.

Source: Across-the-board executive job cuts won’t address ‘staggering’ growth in bureaucracy’s upper ranks, says ex-civil servant

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Lisée | L’absurde guerre contre le télétravail

2026/02/16 Leave a comment

While I can understand the political impulse in these return to office protocols, mirroring the private sector, the “rough justice” of universal application without considering job specific requirements reflects general policy and management weaknesses.

As an executive, I tried to reserve one day every two weeks to work from home. Allowed me the time and space for deeper thinking than the transactional:

….Pour environ la moitié de la population, le télétravail est maintenant possible. C’est une révolution. Au pire, neutre pour la productivité, mais certainement bonne pour la famille, les enfants, le sommeil, la santé, la réduction de la congestion. Les syndicats se battent pour inscrire le droit au télétravail (partiel) dans les conventions collectives. Ils ont raison. J’affirme que dans un avenir pas très lointain, on inscrira ce droit dans les normes minimales du travail. Honte au gouvernement Carney, à Amazon et aux autres qui freinent ce mouvement. Ils retardent le groupe.

Source: “Chronique | L’absurde guerre contre le télétravail”

…. For about half of the population, teleworking is now possible. It’s a revolution. At worst, neutral for productivity, but certainly good for family, children, sleep, health, reduction of congestion. The unions are fighting to include the right to (partial) teleworking in collective agreements. They are right. I affirm that in the not too distant future, this right will be included in the minimum labour standards. Shame on the Carney government, Amazon and the others who are slowing down this movement. They delay the group.

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How is Carney’s government filling high-level jobs?

2026/02/03 Leave a comment

Interesting change. The test will come when we see the annual reports on GiC and judicial appointments that have included diversity data under the Trudeau government. While presented as “transparent and merit-based,” considerable latitude for the government to develop and encourage nominations and thus influence results:

…Since March 2025, only one position — parliamentary budget officer — has been advertised on the government’s appointments website or in the Canada Gazette. For months, the website said it was not accepting applications for any positions. Currently, it says “appointment opportunities will be posted in due course.”

At the same time, the Carney government has made 122 governor-in-council appointments. Some of the openings filled were last advertised years ago. Government insiders say previous postings resulted in pools of qualified applicants that can still be tapped for positions.

Some openings, like chief public health officer and official languages commissioner, were publicly advertised before Trudeau left power. The government has still not named a permanent successor to former public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam, who retired in June. Officials won’t say if Canada’s new official languages commissioner Kelly Burke, who was named last week, was selected through the 2024 open application process.

On March 19, 2025, the governor-in-council (GIC) appointment website advertised 23 job opportunities — some to fill multiple positions.

Ten months later, many are still vacant.

Last week, cabinet approved nine appointments to the new Employment Insurance Board of Appeals. While openings were advertised, they were posted on the board’s own website — not the government’s GIC appointments page.

While the number can fluctuate from day to day as appointments are made and mandates expire, currently, there are around 251 vacant GIC positions.

In the Senate, seven of 105 seats are vacant and eight more senators are scheduled to retire over the course of 2026. However, the website set up under the Trudeau government to open up Senate appointments and allow Canadians to apply to be a senator has said for months that “new applications, nominations or the creation of new profiles for Senate appointments are not being accepted at this time.”

By Tuesday, 24 of the 29 seats on the board Trudeau set up to advise the prime minister on potential senator appointments will be vacant. Only three federal representatives and the two representatives for Nova Scotia will remain.

‘Transparent and merit-based’ process

Carney’s office says that the government is using a “transparent and merit-based selection process” to make appointments….

Source: How is Carney’s government filling high-level jobs?

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May: The Executive Cuts

2026/01/26 1 Comment

The latest overview of the approach in considerable detail:

Too many layers. Everyone knew it.

The executive ranks have been climbing for decades despite warnings about bloat and slow decision-making. Now a 12-per-cent cut is coming: about 1,120 executive jobs disappearing across 90 or so departments.

The cuts will ensure Canada’s executive hierarchy is “a pyramid, not a cylinder,” says one senior bureaucrat. The big driver is saving money. But it’s also about speed. Fewer layers, faster decisions. That’s the plan, anyway.

There are 9,155 bureaucrats who occupy five levels of executives (EX-1 to EX-5) between directors and assistant deputy ministers. But it’s not just them.

Many expect PCO clerk Michael Sabia to also trim the deputy minister ranks, too, as he reshapes the senior bench of public service leaders. He started with a pre-Christmas shuffle — bigger than any seen in years — and promised another. No one at the top is safe, it seems.

“The cuts are a shock to the system, like a taser,” says one senior official. But can cutting layers fix the public service and speed up decision-making like the Carney government expects?…

Source: May: EXs, cuts and layers

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