Treasury Board outlines 500 ways to cut red tape in sweeping review
Twenty-nine departments and agencies reported hundreds of ways they plan to improve regulatory efficiency by ‘speeding up decision-making and streamlining processes to increase productivity’ in the Sept. 8 update.
Ministers also expected to take scissors to office budgets in spending review
The challenge in cutting ministers’ budgets is ensuring their offices ‘can still do what they need to do, and only they can do,’ says former chief of staff David McLaughlin.
Feds’ digital transformation agenda faces critical risks, Shared Services warns in ministerial briefing
Competing priorities and a lack of financial incentives for various government departments to modernize are key hurdles facing the government’s digital services arm, a ministerial briefing package outlines.
Canada’s public service needs updated visible minority hiring targets
Looking at the representation of South Asian Canadians in the federal public service 78 years after the end of British colonization of India.
Changes to rules for ‘national security’ contracts bypass competition and raise concerns of potential abuse, say procurement watchers
Loosening rules around the use of the National Security Exception may speed up defence procurement, but it could have trade-offs when it comes to accountability, say experts.
Speed up bureaucrats’ return to work by making athletic therapy more accessible
Adding this therapy to public sector benefit plans could shorten recovery times, reduce long-term absences and save public funds.
‘Nobody is spared’: Treasury Board plans to cut staff by 10 per cent, with most from ‘employer’ oversight roles
The Treasury Board Secretariat’s departmental plan forecasts an increase in spending, and a decrease in full-time equivalent jobs in its employer oversight unit.
The failed $5-billion program the feds can’t shake
With the deployment of 200 people and the use of AI in some instances, the Phoenix backlog is gradually coming under control, but a new, unexpected problem has arisen.
Treasury Board reports gains on diversity and equity in public service, but will cuts hamper progress?
As of March 2024, just over 70 per cent of the core public administration belonged to one or more employment equity groups. But as the bureaucracy now begins to shrink for the first time in over 10 years, these groups could be disproportionately impacted.
Feds set out $486.9-billion in spending in 2025-26 main estimates
The total budgetary ask represents an 8.4 per cent jump over last year’s spending document, and includes $73.4-billion in special warrants issued while Parliament was prorogued.
