Tag: Quebec
Twin challenges to the public service
The public sector is entering another period where dramatic changes are coming. This is precisely the time to advocate for the importance of a dynamic, effective public service and to argue for mindful, smart management of these forces of change.
Transitions and reboots for the Canadian public service
A new clerk takes the top job at a period of unusual attention and angst in the Canadian government. Political tumult is ever-present, even two years from an election, and planned restraint on public spending likely means tough decisions to come. All the more reason to celebrate the role of officials this Public Service Week
Letter from Ottawa: an exhausting year shows the limits of foresight
Accountability in government is important – but hindsight must be used to help build resilience and capacity in the public sector, not make politicians and public servants even more risk averse
Leaving the comfort zone: Difficult issues in public sector reform
Much of the commentary on the public sector stays at the level of generalities. Exhortations to become more strategic, more inclusive, bolder in advice and better in delivery are impossible to contest. Too often, the discussion stops short of analyzing resistance or tradeoff among objectives. As in so many things, we are much better at…
Heading for the Rapids? – Canadian Government Executive
It isn’t too early to cast an eye to the far horizon and the scenarios for the period just before and just after the next federal election. About a year from now this kind of forecasting will move from providing filler for political pundits to serious planning by a myriad of associations and lobbyists, and…
Talk of Scottish Independence sparks memories of Canada’s fight for national unity.
It must strike others as odd that Canadians strongly associate the arrival of warm weather with another comforting rite of spring – the culmination of the ice hockey season. Over the next two months the sport’s core audience will be joined by millions of fair-weather fans who only show up for the Stanley Cup and…
The growing friction between bilingualism and other forms of inclusion in Canada
In mid-April Canada’s attention is fully seized by the race to suppress an alarming third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, fueled by variants, through vaccination and another tapping of “emergency brake” lockdown measures. It will be a close run thing.