The chair as a bridge between government and universities
As chair, I think I can bring something to bear on issues of public management and how government works (as distinct from what government does, whether carbon pricing, childcare, or international affairs, which are the domain of democratic policymaking). I was an executive in the federal service for 28 years and, as such, a consumer of the products of universities and thinktanks through their publications, conferences, or contracted work.
I also have a great deal of experience working with Indigenous leaders and organizations. I hope that will be helpful in the coming years. It’s very much about dialogue, respectful listening, and working toward solutions, whether on childcare, AI, the arts, or climate change. Solutions must be co-developed and brought forward in a very complex environment, one with multiple players.
Ottawa: a supercluster of public management
One of the things that appeals to me about being the Jarislowsky chairholder at the University of Ottawa is that the National Capital Region is a supercluster of public management. We have excellent universities, with lots of people that work and think about the public sector. We have thinktanks, like the Institute on Governance and the Public Policy Forum. We have lots of retired and semi-retired public servants and people who have thought about the issues and worked on them. We also have access to the embassies of other governments, to the senior leadership of the existing public service, and to a network of people who work on public policy management right across the country.
In 2022, the public sector in Canada is facing recurrent challenges in a new context, as well as entirely new challenges. The next few years present an opportunity to reflect on the lessons of the recent past and on prospects for the future. New cohorts of political and public service leaders will set a new course.
The Jarislowsky Chair in Public Management is well placed to contribute to the discussion.
Freedom and time to address difficult questions
I am hoping to have more freedom to probe what are called the wicked issues. If we had an independent Royal Commission on the public sector in Canada, what questions would it be asking? Those are the kinds of questions I hope to have the freedom and time to poke into, even when they aren’t always comfortable. Interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary work in a university setting can look for the intersections and the cumulative effects of different issues.
The policy issues are plentiful: climate change, mental health, Indigenous reconciliation, and so on, but so are the management issues. The pandemic gave us new challenges and new opportunities: people learning how to work from home, working on collaborative platforms, etc. Some forms of public sector work lend themselves to new modes, others don’t. If you’re running a border station or penitentiary or do aircraft inspections, you can’t work from home.
Some of the challenges for public sector management are familiar: making progress in a diverse and decentralized federation; getting politicians to focus more on long-term or long-neglected issues instead of the short-term news cycle; promoting innovation and risk-taking; breaking down silos in a system built for hierarchy and “vertical” accountability.
Part of the agenda has been set by global events and national trends: greater focus on reconciliation with Indigenous peoples; attention to mental health and wellbeing; issues of inclusion; the impetus for greener operations and a contribution to net-zero carbon emissions. The public sector is also buffeted by forces such as declining trust and civility, the rise of disinformation, information overload, and the impacts of social media on social and political discourse.
Understanding what’s new
“Digital government” is now moving from outward-facing services to internal workflows. The pandemic accelerated adoption of collaborative digital platforms for a much greater range of services and internal workflows, shaking up old models of management and opening new possibilities for where and how work gets done.
The overall context, which a lot of the private sector faces as well, is the acceleration of the pace and demands of reactivity. You must respond very quickly to new events, pick up on what’s going on, and decide what needs to be done. You don’t have the luxury of time, testing, and reflection. You must make the call faster than was the case 20 or 30 years ago.
Government wants the public sector to be more effective and is open to ideas about how to do this. I can’t guarantee anybody’s going to listen to me, any more than any university chair, but I think I have a sense of what the issues are.
Giving back to the next generation
I left public service three years ago now—before the pandemic, two federal elections, and a European war. In retirement, I took up a position as adjunct professor at Carleton University and worked with the Institute on Governance and the Global Government Forum, trying to pay back my cumulative experiences to classrooms of public servants or young people. Last year I wrote a book that shares my thoughts on governing in Canada and did a lot of interviews, podcasts, and class visits about it. I don’t come to this new position with preconceived ideas about what should be done. Rather, I enjoy the dialogue and the feedback, interacting with excellent younger public servants and students. So, I think I will learn new things and draw a lot of energy from these exchanges.