Feds mum on whether Incident Response Group has met to address Afghan crisis
The federal government won’t say if a group composed of cabinet members and senior government officials to co-ordinate Canada’s response in crises was convened to address the crisis in Afghanistan. The Incident Response Group was created by the Liberal government in 2018 to meet in the event of a “national crisis or during incidents elsewhere […]
Management consultants are the problem, not the solution
MONTREAL—When I was a young boy, my brother and I would while away the summer days in Kamouraska by skipping rocks along the surface of the Saint Lawrence River. The shale along the beach offered perfect flat rocks for skipping. We would marvel as the rocks skipped 10, 20, or more times when the river […]
Oversight for ministers’ regional offices changes hands from PSPC to PCO
Some internal restructuring has taken place within government, with oversight of the 16 ministers’ regional offices having been transferred from Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand to the Privy Council Office at the end of June. “The transfer, which occurred in June 2020, is in keeping with the mandate letter for the Deputy Prime […]
Savoie’s new ‘magnum opus’ book argues federal public service has been ‘knocked off its moorings’
Although he says he didn’t plan for the release of his “magnum opus” in the final weeks leading up to the Oct. 21 election, Donald Savoie’s new book, Democracy in Canada: The Disintegration of Our Institutions, argues that if Canadians wish to locate political power, “they should not look to Parliament, political parties, cabinet or […]
Privy Council Office ready to support government transition with new clerk, ‘whatever the result of the election’
Although Clerk of the Privy Council Ian Shugart has only been in the role since April, the Privy Council Office says they will be ready to support the government transition, “whatever the result of the election.” PCO spokesman Pierre-Alain Bujold told Civil Circles that “with more than a decade of service as a deputy minister, […]
What the Durham Report can teach us about avoiding the spread of partisan politics in Canada
No, this is not about the British Lord Durham, who was elected to Parliament in the United Kingdom in 1812, named the U.K. ambassador to Russia, and came to Canada in 1838 as governor general to investigate the Lower Canada rebellion of Papineau. It’s John Durham, the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut appointed […]
Trudeau takes another wrong turn in the SNC-Lavalin affair
OTTAWA—The Trudeau government continues to try to clean up its self-made mess around the SNC-Lavalin affair. The prime minister continues to spout his theory that it was all about different interpretations of conversations and nothing illegal was done. Well, those different interpretations have brought Canadians their fourth Treasury Board president since January, seen the clerk […]
Time to debate separating top civil servant’s roles, says leading expert Savoie
As the debate around the possibility of separating the two hats of the minister of justice and attorney general continues, one well-regarded public administration expert says it’s time to have a similar discussion about splitting the three hats worn by the top federal bureaucrat, Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick. Currently, the clerk of the Privy […]
The time is ripe to grapple with Canada’s big institutional questions
Canadians have just had a crash course in the workings of their national political institutions. What have they learned? Partisan politics rules. Canadians ought not be surprised to learn that political assistants in the Prime Minister’s Office said to one another and to a cabinet minister in a private meeting that “we can have the […]
Ex-DM ‘deeply disturbed’ by PCO clerk Wernick’s committee testimony, but others say it didn’t cross partisan line
Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick’s testimony last week to the House Justice Committee on the SNC-Lavalin scandal was “way over the line,” according to one former deputy minister, who added he was “deeply disturbed” by the “profoundly political” performance. However, another former bureaucrat, Kevin Page, the first parliamentary budget officer, said he didn’t see anything […]
