DRUMMOND REPORT Breaking bad cycles p.16
DENIS VEZINA Re-branding the public service
p.19
APRIL 2012 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 4
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contents
April 2012 – VOLUME 18 – NUMBER 4
FEATURES 15
Change is our future Preparing managers for the inevitable BY CATHY MERCER
16
The Drummond report Breaking a bad cycle of efficiencies BY TOBY FYFE
19
Brand recognition Time to re-brand the public service BY DENIS VÉZINA
20
Course correction Preparing high performance managers BY GREGORY RICHARDS
22
Regulatory irritants Four key lessons for cutting red tape BY ROGER SCOTT-DOUGLAS
COVER 6
Canadian energy Policy implications of Chinese investment BY GORDON HOULDEN
9
Forging new ties
DEPARTMENTS 23
Asia a key to B.C. prosperity
BY BRENT WELLSCH
BY DANA HAYDEN
11
Canadian aid
24
Greater collaboration charts new course
Global hunger
BY MIKE HALEY
25
Seeking solutions to a beatable problem
Partnering in Uganda
BY JOHN READ
26
Ontario helps professionalize a public service
Online Extras
Arctic cooperation
BY HARVEY SCHACHTER
29
Governing digitally Is the future of digital media “entergagement”?
Researchers leading broader perspective BY PETER HARRISON
Online Extras
The Leader’s Bookshelf Don’t say it, draw it
BY ANGELA COKE
14
Procurement Just what is competition?
BY VANESSA CENTOFANTI
13
Performance management Technology’s role in performance culture
BY CHRIS EATON
12
New professionals Globalization’s challenge for tomorrow
BY JEFFREY ROY
30
Opinion How to cut regulatory red tape BY DAVID ZUSSMAN
Missed an issue? Misplaced an article? Visit www.netgov.ca for a full archive of past CGE issues, as well as online extras from our many contributors. April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 3
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Toby Fyfe
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The world has changed When we grew up, my friends and I had a fairly simple view of Canada’s role in the world. We learned in school that Canada had “matured” in the 1930s and ‘40s when it shed Dominion status and fought in the Second World War as an independent country. After the war, Canada became an international peacekeeper, as exemplified by Lester B. Pearson’s winning of the Nobel Prize in 1957, and lived through the Cold War: I remember an air raid siren being erected outside my school, and that one of my friends was able to brag that his Dad had built a bomb shelter in the basement – that had a can opener. Canadians survived the Cold War as our attention turned east to Communist China. On Feb. 1, 1971, both countries set up embassies for the first time in 20 years. And as the ‘70s and ‘80s progressed, the country enjoyed its status as a sensible, rational voice in international affairs. It’s now 2012, the world has changed, and it is clear that the government is focusing on new international directions and challenges. Some issues, such as the decision to install a new blue carpet in the Washington, DC embassy, are not that significant perhaps. Others, such as those highlighted in this annual Canada in the World edition of CGE, are more so. Perhaps none is more noteworthy than the shifting centre of trade and political gravity to the east, specifically to China. In this edition there are articles from Brit-
ish Columbia and Alberta focusing on the potential benefits to, and challenges for, Canada as it seeks to take advantage of this tectonic shift. Also on the international front, we investigate the emerging significance of hunger as a global issue, and explore a new trend in aid that has raised eyebrows in the donor community, where mining companies and aid groups work together to maximize the impact of shrinking aid dollars. In this edition we start a new column on performance management. Every manager knows that no matter what impact budget or staff cuts have, they will be expected to maintain high operational and service delivery quality. The monthly column is being contributed by members of the Performance and Planning Exchange, a non-profit Canada-based international centre of excellence in performance and planning. Finally, last month the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services released what was arguably the most anticipated and hyped-up report on public administration since the federal Royal Commission on Government Organization, or Glassco Commission, report of the 1960’s. The Ontario document has over 300 recommendations covering everything from healthcare to education to public administration. In an interview with Don Drummond, we focus on his ideas for improving the administration of the Ontario Public Service.
MSOT_1
Possibilities Government is challenged with being more efficient and effective in service delivery, while at the same time cutting costs. Constituents’ expectations are high, and public sector leaders now need to make some tough decisions.
BY MIKE TREMBLAY, VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLIC SECTOR, MICROSOFT CANADA
In these times of economic uncertainty, Canadians are turning up the heat on the public sector. Government is challenged with being more efficient and effective in service delivery, while at the same time cutting costs. Constituents’ expectations are high, and public sector leaders now need to make some tough decisions. This is why the federal government’s recent decision to streamline through Shared Services Canada is a true act of leadership – a progressive move that can bring greater productivity and help deliver real, long-term savings. The federal public service has more than 100 different e-mail systems, 300 data centres and over 3,000 network services: a wasteful, inefficient arrangement that is going to take impressive technology and thoughtful change management to restructure. The planned move to one e-mail system, less than 20 data centres, and an overall commitment to streamlining networks will go a long way towards helping to shave costs and empowering teams to be more nimble in their work. At Microsoft, we take the time to understand public sector needs, sharing best practices and leading-edge technologies that have impacted governments at all levels, across the globe.
Ottawa’s Algonquin College is a great example. In just one weekend, Algonquin and Microsoft converted all of the school’s existing 34,0002 student e-mail accounts to Live@edu - Microsoft’s free, hosted e-mail, communication and collaboration service.
student e-mail accounts to Live@edu - Microsoft’s free, hosted e-mail, communication and collaboration service. Serving millions across the globe, educational institutions are choosing to have e-mail and other student services managed externally: reducing the burden on IT, as well as expensive and time-consuming backups, training, maintenance, security and data storage costs. The school’s IT team can now spend more time focusing on strategic initiatives to better serve the institution, and perhaps most importantly, this solution better serves the new wave of students, improving accessibility from virtually any device – regardless of their location – in an efficient manner. Consider what a private cloud-based e-mail system could do for the productivity of Canada’s federal public service, which has a population of hundreds of thousands workers. Imagine if this were propagated to other government entities across Canada – great e-mail services allowing far more focus on value-added lines of business and as a result, helping to improve services for Canadians. Without a doubt, Canada’s public sector faces new and complex challenges in today’s networked world, so much so that it can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. It’s time we all consider technology as a critical enabler of change – an investment, not an expense. The federal government is on the right path with Shared Services Canada, but to keep the momentum going and ensure success, our leaders will need to drive a focused vision forward that ensures the public sector is equipped with the tools and technology they need. Only this will ensure the true benefits of shared services are realized by both government and the citizens of Canada. As the Vice President for Public Sector at Microsoft Canada, Mike Tremblay leads the company’s activities with federal, provincial and municipal governments, as well as to the healthcare and education sectors. He has an Executive MBA from Concordia University and is a graduate of Computer Technology from Algonquin College. From 2004-2010, Mr. Tremblay was a member
We’ve seen the cloud – a web-based way to process, manage and store data – bring ambitious visions to life, and we are certain it is truly going to fuel the success of shared services. Ottawa’s Algonquin College is a great example. In just one weekend, Algonquin and Microsoft converted all of the school’s existing 34,000 2
MSOT_110930_Possibilites_Advertorial_CGE_8.375x11.25_FINAL.indd 1
of Algonquin’s Board of Governors. He is currently a member of Algonquin’s Foundation Board and a member of the Advocacy Committee at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. 1
Government of Canada
2
Microsoft Case Studies
For more information visit Microsoft.ca/publicsectorservices
12-03-13 5:23 PM
Feature Canada in the world
Gordon Houlden is the director of the China
Institute and professor of political science at the University of Alberta. He served in the Canadian Foreign Service for 32 years.
Canadian energy
Policy implications of Chinese investment Since its founding, Canada has looked either east to Europe or south to the United States for export markets. But the accelerating shift of the global center of economic gravity to Asia from Europe and North America will require a re-ordering of Canada’s foreign trade and investment priorities. The recent visit of Prime Minister Harper to China, centered on energy, highlighted the importance of what can now be described as Canada’s most significant bilateral relationship after the United States. A highlight of that visit was the conclusion of a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement that had been under negotiation for almost two decades. The attention accorded this treaty, which still needs to be ratified, serves as a reminder that investment flows between Canada and China have emerged a major component of the bilateral relationship, particularly in the energy sector. This was not always the case. From the 1970 establishment of diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China until the economic reform movement led by Party leader Deng Xiaoping, trade and particularly investment played a minor role in CanadaChina relations. Only during the 1980s and 1990s did investment by Canadian firms in China’s expanding economy begin to be significant as China emerged as the largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amongst developing countries. Chinese investments into Canada’s oil and gas sector remained modest (with the exception of the purchase of the controlling share of Husky Energy by Hong Kong interests). One restraining factor was that Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were unfamiliar with both Canadian investment regulations and with operating conditions for Chinese SOEs in Canada. However, China’s economic fluorescence led to a rapid accumulation of foreign currency reserves, which in turn stimulated expansion of China’s foreign investment abroad. China’s status as workshop for the global economy also fueled the Chinese search for raw materials, including petroleum, in Asia, Australia, Africa and Latin America. This wave of Chinese investment targeted either direct investment in foreign energy resources, or was directed to long-term energy purchase agreements. (The value of just one Chinese contract for Australian Liquid Natural Gas in 2011 exceeded US$70 billion.) North America was largely untouched by the first waves of Chi6 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
nese foreign investment, due in part to the political sensitivities in the United States regarding high-profile Chinese investment, particularly by SOEs. In the case of Canada, an abortive effort to purchase Noranda (2004) by China’s Minmetals Corporation soured Chinese interest in Canada’s resource sector. But the 2004 Noranda case turned out to be a temporary setback. By 2007 the pace of Chinese investment had increased, and from 2009 the trend accelerated. Total Chinese investment in Canadian energy resources now totals approximately $15 billion. Chinese investment in the Canadian energy sector has generally followed three patterns. First, China has sought to acquire the overseas holdings of Canadian companies. Second, China has sought to acquire stakes in existing Canadian energy companies, but without reaching the level of investment that would involve control of the Canadian company. Third, China has sought joint ventures, often with rather large Canadian energy companies. None of these approaches tend to generate much controversy with the Canadian public or media, as compared with direct takeovers of high-profile Canadian energy companies. The purchase of Daylight Energy by China Chemical and Petroleum Corporation (Sinopec) in 2011, closely followed by the purchase of OPTI by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) represents a new chapter in the behavior of Chinese SOEs in Canada. While the purchase values, just over $2 billion in both cases, are not large by the standards of the capital-intensive petroleum business, neither are they insignificant. Chinese energy SOEs have ready access to capital for foreign investment through China’s state banks, and with China’s foreign currency
Canada in the world Feature
reserves in the range of US$3 trillion, no potential purchase is, at least in theory, too large to contemplate. However, China remains sensitive to domestic political consideration in Canada and elsewhere, and appears reluctant to make purchases that would generate strong political resistance, as occurred with the Anglo-Australian firm BHP’s efforts to purchase Potash Corporation last year. China’s motivations in seeking investment in the Canadian energy sector are several. It is keenly aware that its domestic petroleum production falls short of Chinese requirements, and this gap is growing. While China as recently as 1990 was self-sufficient in petroleum production, the declining output of its largest oilfields, but more importantly the growth in China’s energy appetite, has sharply increased Chinese demand. China is also increasingly dependent upon Middle Eastern supplies, and is the largest purchaser of Iranian oil exports. China is understandably wary of the stability of Middle Eastern and African energy exporters, having watched as dramatic 2011 events involving Libya, South Sudan and Yemen in 2011 cut those nations’ energy exports. Canadian energy production, particularly from the oil sands, is growing rapidly. This combination of instability in some of China’s key energy suppliers, combined with enhanced Canadian production capacity, has certainly been noticed in Beijing, a fact that helped underwrite Chinese support for Prime Minister Harper’s focus on energy during his February visit to China. On the Canadian side, with only one substantive export destination for Canadian petroleum exports – the United States – there is an understandable desire to diversify. This convergence of respecd party audittive ofnational interests – the Chinese desire for import diversification, redibility and and the Canadian desire for export diversification – constitutes the mainspring of Canada-Chinese energy collaboration. r improvement. China is ready to make further substantive investments in the Canadian energy sector, even where there is no means to ship petroleum to China. The purchases are in line with publicly stated Chinese desires to reduce the share of Chinese foreign holdings in U.S. financial assets. However, China would prefer to at least have the option of shipping petroleum from Alberta to China through energy corridors to the West Coast. But China has been wise in not directly involving itself in the sharp domestic Canadian debate over the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project, or any of the various other rail and pipeline export corridors that have been proposed. China may actually be indifferent as to which project(s) goes forward. There are a few misconceptions that should be addressed regarding Chinese investments in Canada’s energy sector. First, U.S. and European investment dwarf Chinese investment, and this dominance is unlikely to be altered in the foreseeable future. Second, Canadian oil that moves to market through Pacific ports will not all go to China. The Chinese economy only overtook the Japanese economy (in nominal GDP) in 2010, and Japan, Korea and several other Asian economies are highly dependent upon sea-borne oil imports. Finally, even if all of the energy corridors that are contemplated to the West Coast were to be constructed, along with the expanded port facilities that will be required, Canada will be only one modest part of the much larger solution that would be required to solve China’s petroleum dependency on foreign suppliers.
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Be ‘Ahead of the curve’! Register now at www.apex.gc.ca
En 2012, le Symposium de l’APEX examinera la prévoyance dont nous devons faire preuve pour intégrer les changements qui se manifestent dans nos organisations et autour de nous tout en étant les architectes d’organisations, d’équipes et de leaders productifs, résilients et à rendement élevé.
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MAY 29 -30 MAI NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE CENTRE NATIONAL DES ARTS
Dana Hayden is British Columbia’s deputy minister, Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation.
Canada in the world Feature
Asia is the key to our prosperity For much of the past decade, the government of British Columbia has concentrated on forging stronger ties with Asia, the fastest growing region in the world.
Expanding markets in Asia for B.C. goods and services is crucial to the province’s prosperity. While much of the developed world struggles to recover from a debilitating recession, virtually all economic growth is taking place in emerging markets. Many economists and experts predict that by 2050, Asia will account for 50 percent of global economic activity. As Canada’s Pacific province, B.C. is ideally situated to develop even closer links with this lucrative market. At the end of February, Pat Bell, the minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, attended the annual federal-provincialterritorial meeting of ministers responsible for international trade in Ottawa. One of the most interesting items discussed during that meeting was Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s trade mission to China. A particularly promising result of that trip was the announcement of a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement. The government of Canada’s commitment to complete a trade and economic study by May 2012 is welcomed. There is little doubt that such a study will identify tangible solutions to improving trade and investment. In the meantime, trade barriers still exist and much more needs to be done. In
spite of those restrictions, B.C. has enjoyed spectacular success in Asia and exports to the key markets identified in “Canada Starts Here: The B.C. Jobs Plan” – China, Japan, India and South Korea – rose 23.3 percent in 2011 over the previous year. However, there are even greater opportunities in these markets, which is why B.C. is so supportive of Canada’s expression of interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. The multilateral agreement encompasses a free trade zone of 950 million people with a combined gross domestic product of more than $28 trillion. When it comes to trade, B.C. has been collaborating for a number of years with Alberta and Saskatchewan. The western provinces have assumed a leadership role in eliminating barriers to trade, investment and labour mobility, first in 2007 when we launched the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement with Alberta, and again in 2010 with the New West Partnership with Alberta and Saskatchewan. The partnership between the three western provinces has created an economic powerhouse of nine million people with a combined GDP of about $500 billion. As Canada’s largest interprovincial barrier-free trade and investment market,
the New West Partnership paves the way for the three provinces to work together to the benefit of workers, businesses and investors, enhancing competitiveness and giving our provinces an edge in international trade and investment in Asia and other markets. To that end, the three provinces have established a joint Western Canadian Trade and Investment Office in Shanghai and collaborated on joint missions, such as the 2010 premiers’ joint mission to China to promote trade and investment opportunities between western Canada and Asia, and the mission to Beijing and Shanghai by Alberta and B.C. ministers of agriculture. Where this partnership has been most effective, however, is in removing internal or domestic barriers to trade, investment and labour mobility, making western Canada a decidedly more attractive market in which to invest and do business. Leadership, focus and sheer hard work have led to phenomenal results in Asia for the province. B.C. exports in 2011 to the Pacific Rim outstripped those to the United States for the first time. The value of goods exported to China reached $5.1 billion, a 24 percent increase over 2010 and a staggering 442 percent increase since 2001. The B.C. Jobs Plan, which was launched in September, will continue to build on these achievements. Part of our success in Asia is based on steps we have taken as a government, such as investing in infrastructure that helps companies efficiently get their goods and services to international markets. We are committed to doubling B.C.’s international presence in the next year. At home we have opened the Asia Pacific Business Centre in Vancouver and devoted an entire division of the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation to growing economic ties with Asia and other priority markets. Cooperative approaches to trade, investment and business priorities are key to a prosperous Canada. Focusing on the building relationship with growing markets in Asia makes sense for all Canadians. April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 9
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Canada in the world Feature
Greater collaboration helps chart new natural resources course
Natural resource extraction has been described as a curse in many developing countries because of its association with corruption, human rights abuses and environmental degradation. Even so, natural resources have and will continue to play a significant role in the development of many poorer nations. In this context, several Canadian mining firms and civil society organizations have sought to chart a new course, one in which the mining occurs in better organized and governed national and local contexts, mining and corporate social responsibility practices reflect the highest international standards, and greater benefits accrue to the communities in which mining activities occur. The key is that this collaboration results in win-win situations for all parties involved. Industry standards and investments, corporate social responsibility and community relations apply beyond the extractive sector. These issues arise wherever the private sector plays a prominent role in development. As a result, efforts are needed to encourage greater private sector investment, domestic and international (including Canadian), and to ensure that this investment generates wider benefits for poor people and their communities. Two projects in Ghana and Sri Lanka highlight some of the opportunities and challenges of private sector and civil society collaboration in addressing some of these issues. In Ghana, the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) has initiated a project with CIDA and Rio Tinto Alcan funding
to strengthen the capacity of a district government to: develop more participatory development plans with local communities; deliver better quality education, water and sanitation, and youth services; and engage and collaborate with all mining firms operating in the area. In doing so, this project seeks to increase the benefits that communities receive from mining operations in particular, by strengthening governance at the local level. This has the added benefit of helping to create a more stable, predictable and welcoming local environment for mining and other private sector investments. Over time, this small project should inform broader national policies on mining and local governance. In Sri Lanka, WUSC is undertaking a similarly interesting initiative in the tea sector, where it works with plantation communities and tea estate owners. With CIDA support, WUSC has aided plantation communities – which include some of the most marginalized people in Sri Lanka – to obtain their birth certificates and national identity cards, participate in civic education, and begin organizing to address some of their own needs. Estate owners have also been encouraged to improve working conditions and make greater investments in the well-being of
plantation communities. Labour relations have improved, productivity in the sector has increased, and greater benefits have accrued to both communities and estate owners. As well, other tea estate owners are now eager to apply the lessons developed through this project, thereby multiplying the impact of Canada’s modest initial investment in plantation communities. Projects such as the ones in Sri Lanka and Ghana demonstrate the potential to harness private sector interests to advance the interests and well-being of poorer communities. This work involves new models of collaboration between communities, civil society, government and the business community in ways that create greater benefits for all parties involved. The form in which this collaboration takes place will necessarily vary by industry, country and even community. However, it will depend upon an understanding by industry that its long-term success is increasingly linked to the rights, participation and prosperity of communities affected by industry operations. Similarly, successful collaboration will depend upon civil society organizations capable of working with communities, local government and industry itself in ways that help to create pragmatic platforms for conflict resolution and meaningful win-win collaboration. April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 11
Photos: CIDA
228
Chris Eaton is the executive director
Feature Canada in the world
Vanessa Centofanti recently
worked at the UN World Food Programme prior to returning to the Executive Policies and Talent Management Sector at Treasury Board Secretariat.
Seeking solutions to defeat
global hunger
One billion people – that’s one seventh of the world’s population, 28 times the Canadian population – spend their days with little or no food and say goodnight feeling hungry. Hunger, defined as under nourishment or malnutrition, is the world’s number one health risk killing more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Although the vast majority of the billion suffering from hunger live in developing countries, hunger and foodrelated issues are also present in industrialized countries. It is no mystery as to why food-related issues have been increasingly prominent on the global agenda. So what exactly is hunger and why is it an important global issue? Hunger can be defined in many ways. Hunger is the lack of important nutrients required to energize and sustain the body to accomplish its physical and mental activities. The daily recommended intake of food for a healthy individual is 2,100 kcal, a daily quantity that is easily consumed by most Canadians, but the many suffering from hunger most often live off considerably less. Hunger can be caused by adversities such as war and natural disasters, but these types of emergencies only account for eight percent of hunger victims. Beyond this are larger causes such as poverty, agricultural infrastructure and over-exploitation of the environment. Each of these causes can be attributed to politics, governance and unstable economies. There exists a high correlation between poverty and hunger. In fact, it is a vicious cycle that is challenging (although not impossible) to break. Poverty creates hunger as individuals cannot afford to buy nutritious food and, in turn, hunger creates 12 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
Photo: UN
poverty as individuals lack the ability to work and earn a living. Contrary to what one might believe, there is more than enough food available to feed the world’s growing population of seven billion people and eradicate hunger. So what is preventing this from occurring? There are many programs in place to help fight the effects of poverty and hunger while providing a better quality of life, such as school feeding programs that encourage children to attend school by providing them with nutritious meals and food for their families (variations also exist in Canada); food for work projects where unemployed members of a community work on new infrastructure in exchange for food; purchase for progress programs that support local farmers by buying staple foods from developing countries; and, an alternative to direct food interven-
tion, the cash and voucher programs that provide the poor in countries where food shortage is not an issue, with cash transfers or vouchers to redeem on food purchases. These are just a few examples of the numerous programs put in place by aid organizations. Yet despite these efforts, there are other influential factors to consider such as international policy and governance, and economic crisis. The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s report on the Expert Meeting, “How to Feed the World in 2050,” states that the world’s population will increase by about 34 percent, reaching a total of nine billion people by the middle of the century. According to experts, there is and will continue to be sufficient food to ensure the entire population is fed. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the UN World Food Programme, has said that “defeating hunger is a realistic goal for our time, as long as lasting political, economic, financial and technical solutions are adopted.” The realization of this goal is, in fact, contingent on two things: the investment in research and development for technologies and methods that support sustainable food production, agricultural infrastructure, and environmental resource management; and the establishment of governing policies that not only target food production to meet demand but, more important, ensure food access and security for those most vulnerable, ultimately allowing them to lead healthy lives. Hunger and food-related issues are gaining prominence on the agendas of today’s global leaders. With the world’s wealth in resources and technologies, hunger and food security can be achieved. The task will require a global commitment to establish and implement fair policies and governance frameworks that guarantee the efficient and sustainable production of food, fair and competitive trading systems, and food security for all. We are all affected by these hunger and food-related problems but it is crucial to be mindful that we are equally all part of the solution to resolve them.
Angela Coke is the associate deputy
Canada in the world Feature
minister, HROntario, Ontario Ministry of Government Services.
Partnering for public services in Uganda The Ontario Public Service (OPS) is participating in a partnership project with the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) to administer the Canadian International Development Agency’s Democratic Governance Program in Uganda. The program has three streams of activity: policy capacity development, communications and human resource management. In July 2011, as the Ontario lead for the human resources management project, I was fortunate to complete a successful mission in Uganda with my OPS colleagues Shamira Madhany (chief diversity and accessibility officer); Dave Walker (former director, Toronto HR Service Delivery), and Ather Shabbar (manager, customer service, Ministry of Transportation). Uganda has a population of approximately 33 million people and its size is the same as Great Britain – about 240,000 sq km. The Ugandan government has created a National Development Plan outlining a vision and strategic directions to transform Ugandan society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years. They are committed to developing the skills and organizational capacity of the Uganda Public Service (UPS) to ensure professional public servants can deliver the government’s agenda and provide quality services to citizens. The mission included training UPS trainers to deliver workshops on competencybased recruitment to personnel officers and public service commission staff from various districts. This is to ensure those responsible for hiring have the knowledge, skills and tools to manage a fair and transparent recruitment process based on merit that results in quality hires. We also supported their trainers with the development of a leadership and change management workshop that will be targeted at senior leaders and managers in the UPS, to enhance their skills and capacity to lead
Ontario Team meets with John Mitala (centre), Head of Public Service and Secretary to Cabinet, Office of the President Government of Uganda UPS, Secretary of Cabinet/ Head of Civil Service.
and advance the transformation agenda. Our team spent many productive days planning with the trainers, completing material, delivering and evaluating the workshops. We also discussed the business plan for their Civil Service College. While we were there we discussed and provided feedback on the overall UPS Transformation Strategy, their Human Resources Plan, and the proposal for an innovation program. We provided tools and advice, and ran a session on diversity and inclusion to support the work they are doing to meet gender equity goals. We had the opportunity to meet and dialogue with key officials, including the secretary of the cabinet/head of the civil service; the deputy head of public service/ secretary of administrative reform; the state minister and the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, and a number of public service commissioners. At the end of some very long days, we still made time to enjoy the hospitality of our Ugandan hosts who ensured we sampled great Ugandan food, music and cultural events. We spent most of our time in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, but we did travel to Jinja (about two hours drive away) to visit the site of the Uganda Civil Service Col-
lege. We also visited Lake Victoria at the source of the River Nile, a beautiful area. It was enlightening to see more of the country and people of Uganda. Our OPS team went to Uganda to provide advice, exchange knowledge, ideas and “best practices” – and hopefully we did that in a way that was relevant and applicable to their reality. We most certainly learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Working with our Ugandan Public Service partners reinforces that we are part of a broader, global public service community. The UPS has dedicated public servants committed to improving their public service in many of the ways we are. They want to improve employee engagement and productivity, build technical skills and leadership capacity, improve service delivery and build public trust. They want to ensure they have a strong public service so they can develop and improve their country and the quality of life for citizens. Between missions, we keep in contact with our partners through technology to ensure we continue the dialogue, share material, monitor our work plan and achieve our deliverables. We look forward to hosting our Ugandan colleagues this summer in Ontario and continuing on our partnership journey. April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 13
Feature Canada in the world
Dr. Peter Harrison is Stauffer-Dunning
Chair and director of the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University. He is Chair of the International Polar Year wrap up conference.
Arctic Cooperation
Knowledge sharing trumps confrontation As the economic and political realities of the Arctic begin to shift, progress follows only where cooperation leads. The Arctic is a world apart. The distances are epic, and the weather often dangerously extreme. The social and cultural realities are ages old and complex. In an area once importantly defined by the estrangements of the Cold War, a common future for the Arctic states now finds expression in the form of the Arctic Council, a body created by the Ottawa Declaration of 1996, precisely to “provide a means for promoting cooperation.” Uniquely, the member states of this governing body – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, United States – are joined by six area Aboriginal groups who are “permanent representatives” to the Council. And while there remains a popular focus on “sovereignty” and military presence, the Arctic Council continues to grow in stature as it meets more meaningful challenges. A binding agreement has recently been reached about cooperation on search and rescue (SAR), and discussions are shaping a common approach to the crucial issue of marine pollution. Within the Arctic community of nations, the settlement of Norway and Russia’s 40year dispute over the Barents Sea has unfolded directly into a joint initiative – Barents 2020 – that begins with protecting the environment and has grown into plans for international collaboration, the setting of standards for the oil and gas industry, joint Russian-Norwegian advanced studies in “petroleum technology,” and a program of outreach to other Arctic countries. Ultimately, the remaining outstanding decisions about maritime (seabed) jurisdiction in the Arctic will be made within 14 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
the legal framework set by the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), specifically Article 76. Yet what might seem a battleground for lawyers has instead been the meeting place for researchers working together to define the outer limits of polar continental shelves. Intellectually, it makes sense to share knowledge. Furthermore, the physical reality of the Arctic demands a model of mutual aid. Canadian and Danish researchers share duties in the Lincoln Sea area where the countries’ territorial claims abut. The Canadian icebreaker Louis St. Laurent and the American icebreaker Healy conducted bathymetric seismic surveys of the Beaufort Sea together, in another area where divergent claims remain unresolved. The conversation among Arctic researchers of different countries is now taken entirely for granted, and the implications are profound. The International Polar Year (IPY), 2007-2008, sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WTO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU), and supported by more than 60 countries, created – among many other things – a dense net of international cooperation. Fifty thousand scientists and 200 IPY networks now encircle the poles with a growing body of shared knowledge and interpersonal communication. As the uses of that knowledge spill into the growing Arctic transportation and resource development sectors, the cooperation of science with industry will inescapably also mean the cooperation of many jurisdictions. Crucially, those jurisdictions must include northern people whose land claim settlements in Canada now give them a powerful voice and significant rights. Again the way forward must be charted through collaboration, accommodation, the integration of western and indigenous knowledge, and a broadening perspective.
The government of Canada – which will next chair the Arctic Council from 20132015 – has already recognized the principle of Arctic cooperation and made meaningful commitment to it in the form of the decision to build the Canada High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) in Cambridge Bay, and which is to be made available for international use. Indeed, today the Arctic is becoming far less a world apart. There is unprecedented interest in the region, not just from the Arctic coastal states, but also from across Europe and from China, Korea, India and many other countries. Managing all that that entails will be a global challenge of the early 21st century. Fortunately, the emerging structures and context for decisions are based on cooperation, and on what is known and what is shared.
The International Polar Year wrap up conference, “From Knowledge to Action,” will be held at the Palais de Congres, Montreal, from April 22-27, 2012. The IPY included the work of 50,000 researchers from more than 60 countries who collaborated in more than 228 international networks. The Conference will bring together more than 2200 researchers, decisionmakers, indigenous people and private sector representatives to discuss the results of IPY work, and to consider the particular needs of the polar regions in a changing world.
Leadership Feature
Cathy Mercer is acting executive
director of the National Managers’ Community.
Change is our future As federal government managers deal with the results of the recently tabled budget, there is mounting apprehension about the impact of these decisions – on them, their teams and their operations. Managers are concerned about having to lay off staff, maintain operations and provide services to an increasingly diverse Canadian population that has high expectations of quality and timely service. They are striving to remain positive, engaging and motivating employees in this uncertain and unsettling climate that has many employees concerned about the possibility of losing their job. This is not the first time that the federal government has gone through an exercise to reduce spending and stabilize the public service. Many of us recall the Program Review period in the early ‘90s where a number of measures were implemented to reduce its size. There are a lot of lessons learned from that experience that are being applied to the current situation. So what are they and how are managers preparing themselves to manage in these challenging times? First, managers are taking steps to plan and get a better handle on their workforce. Who is planning to retire? What are the skill sets and competencies that employees need today and for the future? What are the learning, development and recruitment needs of their organization? These questions are fundamental to ensure that future organizational needs are addressed. Second, they are equipping themselves to be able to manage workforce adjustments. Finally, they are preparing themselves for the most difficult aspect – having to tell employees that they are affected by workforce reduction, or tell them the even more difficult news that their position is surplus to requirements. Dealing with the resulting emotional trauma and disruption in the workplace is extremely difficult, and many managers are now attending sessions and courses to better equip themselves for this daunting responsibility.
In situations where there is some downsizing, managers will need to be able to support the employees who remain and keep the workplace as positive and upbeat as possible at a time when employees are dealing with the loss of their colleagues, feel pangs of guilt that they still have a job, and remain concerned about their own long-term job security. Over the last several months, the National Managers’ Community has been very active in helping to identify the needs of managers and getting them better informed and equipped to manage the many complex situations associated with the current and pending changes.
tions. Managers have shown a keen interest in these sessions, which have been full to capacity with waiting lists. In addition, NMC’s upcoming annual forum will focus on preparing managers to implement the changes announced in the budget and lead in a transformed environment. The forum, “The Leadership Journey: Managing in a new Era,” will take place in Winnipeg from May 7-10. Wayne Wouters, Clerk of the Privy Council Office, has confirmed his attendance along with several deputy heads who will participate in discussions with the anticipated 1,200 managers about the future public service.
It is likely that we are heading for a prolonged period of change and downsizing. You will need to be able to deal with change. . .
The Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer and the Canada School of Public Service have been offering sessions on workforce management and workforce adjustment across the country and the NMC has been actively promoting and getting managers out to these sessions. In every region of the country, the NMC has offered tools for engagement and coaching sessions, along with workshops on stress management, mental health in the workplace, and having difficult conversa-
In the last several months, Suzanne Vinet, champion for the NMC, has been meeting and speaking with managers across the country. A key message that has resonated with managers is about the importance of resilience. As she explains, “as difficult as the next few months may be, it is likely that we are heading for a prolonged period of change and downsizing. You will need to be able to deal with change not just for a week, a month or even a year. Change is our future.” April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 15
Feature Management
The Drummond Report Breaking a bad cycle
The Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, or the Drummond Report, provides a comprehensive blueprint for public sector reform in the province. Included in the recommendations are proposals on how government can become more efficient. Don Drummond spoke to editor-in-chief Toby Fyfe. of revenues. You can’t keep running your expenses up by 6.5%, which has been the average over the last 10 years in almost every jurisdiction in Canada. That doesn’t work. So not only the short-term and the initial fiscal restraint period have to be different, but also they have to be different on a sustainable basis as well. You say service delivery needs to move from reactive to proactive. What do you mean?
A theme of the report is that we must administer government better based on managing risk, creating efficiencies and ensuring accountability. This has been going on for years: why hasn’t it worked? There’s an unfortunate cycle of efficiency in governments. In the good years they tend not to be very concerned about efficiency and become sloppy. Then about every 10 years – and we’re in the cycle right now at the federal and provincial levels and in most of the municipalities – they put a premium on efficiency. Sadly, history suggests that as soon as they get back out of their fiscal hole they start increasing the spending wildly and not being very conscious of efficiency.
I’m quite confident we’re going to see a focus on driving efficiency gains in governments across the land in the next couple of years. The tougher question is: if and when they do get back to balanced budgets will that kind of discipline stay in place? That’s the toughest thing, and that’s where all jurisdictions in Canada seem to have failed. Are you saying conditions are so serious governments have to make it work this time? I don’t think there’s a reasonable expectation of a substantial reprieve from the fiscal discipline. If we do get a period in Ontario where recovery is only about 2% real growth with 2% inflation, we get about 4% nominal growth which is about the pace
Our whole model of policy, particularly in the social and healthcare fields, is to wait until a problem is very apparent and then throw some resources to try to patch it up. Yet we know with fair accuracy which individuals in society will likely run into problems, and can predict with a fair degree of accuracy what kind of problems they will be. There are different public policy models: you can try to deal with it at the onset and prevent it from spreading or you can do what we typically do right now, which is wait until there’s a severe problem. Health is an example. One of the Senate reports indicated that the issue of heath is only about 25 percent healthcare; the rest is about social and economic conditions. And yet you never hear any discussion about that and have hardly any policies designed to address the 75 percent of the problem. In your report you write that the government should “let service delivery outcomes adjust the size of the public service.” Explain. There are certain fixed formulas govern-
16 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
Management Feature
It has to go both ways and by being strong in the beginning I think you create some bad feelings and lack of support from departments if you’re too overbearing. proper stuff. Not all the people have the literacy to deal with the Internet and the like, but when people do, many prefer to do it that way. What about managing risk if your proposals were implemented? ments try to follow when downsizing, typically looking for the glaring headline that says we’re going to cut x percent of the public service or we’re going to cut thousands of jobs. Those are inputs and you shouldn’t start off trying to control your inputs. You should decide what objectives you want, what are the financial parameters and operate them in the most efficient manner. The number of employees required for the program will follow from that, but you’ll end up with huge inefficiencies if you start with the number of employees, as you do now in Ontario. You call on ServiceOntario to use the telephone and the Internet more when delivering services. Is this a cost-saving measure that could badly affect certain people? It’s not really a cost-saving measure, although it could be. Social assistance and welfare are classic cases. It was put to us that as many as 70 percent of the interactions between welfare case workers and the clientele are over matter-of-fact issues: when is my cheque going to come? Many of these questions could be answered on the Internet or by phone. By doing that you would save money but it would also allow you to divert the resources of the welfare caseworkers to people who need extraordinary intervention. Right now the people are so busy dealing with matter-offact issues they don’t have time to do the
You have to have a scientific approach to risk: all it takes is a two-dollar muffin to be claimed and huge troubles occur. Here’s a perfect example: as Commissioners, we didn’t get a per diem. We had to claim for everything. I can’t submit an airline online receipt, which is all I ever receive: I have to submit a boarding card. Why do I have to do that? Well, I guess there’s an infinitesimal possibility I could have booked and received compensation for my flight and not taken it. It would be quite a feat to pull that off since I did show up for all the meetings in Toronto, so you would think you’d have a ready way of capturing that. It’s a classic example of the enormous amount of effort and taxpayer money devoted to avoid one possibility that maybe I might have taken a meal that I didn’t actually incur. We need the right balance between an audit type of process and an extraordinarily heavy handed administrative and compliance process, which is what we have now, which costs an enormous amount of time for the recipient and for the government. You want ministers and officials to have “a great deal of discretion” in deciding how to implement reforms. Isn’t this a recipe for slippage? It’s a leash but it’s not that long a leash. The model I was very taken with was the one we followed in Program Review with the federal government. If your depart-
ment was given a 15 percent target you could come before the Program Review Committee to say how you were going to get there. In most cases that sounded fine and you were sent on your way, and in some cases it didn’t and you were told to go back. Previously, central agencies had decided not only how much the department should cut, but also exactly how it should cut. Smart as central agencies may be they don’t know the programs as well as the departments who are actually running them. The flip side of that is we have recommended a strong central oversight process in Ontario so we have it covered both ways. It has to go both ways and by being strong in the beginning I think you create some bad feelings and lack of support from departments if you’re too overbearing. Overall, you are proposing real change in how business is done by government. Are you optimistic that the message will to get through? I’m very mindful that the report was a bit naïve and fanciful; it’s not like these ideas wouldn’t have occurred to anybody before but they’ve never been successfully executed, so we’re calling for something quite different. I guess at the heart of it it’s about creating a completely different culture of government. In the ‘70s and ‘80s it was more prestigious to be working in government, but the prestige was that people largely went there to implement new and expensive programs. Can there be that kind of prestige and pride of working in the government by going and operating programs efficiently as opposed to creating new, bigger and more expensive ones? I think there should be.
April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 17
Managing matters
A free webinar for public sector managers and practitioners May 9, 2012, 12:00 – 1:00PM EST
Integrating Monitoring and Evaluation to Support Decisions in Difficult Times Most managers see measurement (monitoring) and evaluation as distinct functions. Yet, in times of restraint when the tough decisions need to be made, integrating them can help managers and governments meet their goals. The Institute on Governance and Canadian Government Executive magazine are partnering with the Performance and Planning Exchange (http://www.ppx.ca) to offer a FREE webinar to help you produce and use results planning, monitoring and evaluation evidence to support decision-making.
Participants will
• Learn how to integrate monitoring and evaluation to cost-effectively support management decisions • Get tools and templates so they can align initiatives with mission and vision, set priorities, plan results and assess progress • Review applied examples relevant to policy, program and regulatory functions in public sector and multiple-stakeholder initiatives
About the Presenter:
About the Host:
He has developed and presented to the OECD and the World Bank, and has delivered projects and workshops across Canada.
He is editor-in-chief of Canadian Government Executive magazine. He writes regularly on public management issues, both in a weekly e-newsletter for Canadian Government Executive and on Twitter at @tfyfe.
Steve Montague is a co-founder of Performance Management Network and currently co-president of PPX. Steve has an international reputation for his work in Canada and has delivered projects and workshops on four continents in performance planning, measurement and evaluation.
Toby Fyfe is Vice-President of the IOG Learning Lab, where he is responsible for the IOG’s educational programs.
For more information or to register please contact Sandra Service at sandras@netgov.ca or (905) 727-4091 Ext. 228 REGISTER NOW!
To register go to https://networkedgovernment.ca/managingmatters
he
nd ng
Denis Vézina was a retired federal communications executive. As president of D.V.-CO Consulting, he helped people achieve success through better communications. Denis passed away last October.
Renewal Feature
A brand to believe in Although the value of Canada’s professional and non-partisan public services is widely acknowledged, the need for deep-rooted and comprehensive re-branding of the public service is critical. Two main factors threaten the capability of Canada’s public services to meet the needs and expectations of a diverse population in a highly competitive global economy: perception and demographics.
Perception For public services to be fully effective and for democracies to maintain legitimacy there must be a minimum of trust between elected officials, public servants and those they serve. Trust being based on perception as much as on deeds, it matters that citizens believe their public services to be at least adequate. Canada’s second national sport is “public service bashing,” a favourite pastime in coffee shops and on talk radio shows, those founts of objectivity and sound analysis. The mainstream media and populist politicians also engage in the sport, mostly to advance their own interests. As a consequence, from the citizen’s perspective, there is a profound sense that most public services are generally inefficient, reactive and uncaring. Those who govern often respond to their constituents’ dissatisfaction by layering on rules and obsessive auditing, enforced by assorted watchdogs that add delays and excessive transaction costs, thereby feeding the prevailing perception.
Demographics At the federal level it is estimated that by 2015, up to 30 percent of “baby boom” public servants will be eligible to retire. And they will. Many will take with them decades of corporate know-how. This will come at a time when the interdependence of public issues and attendant complexity requires ever more qualified resources. From a citizen’s perspective, this exodus,
when added to announced layoffs, could well result in a rapid and pervasive reduction in the capacity of their public servants to meet needs and expectations. For current staff and most potential recruits eager for challenge, collaboration and creative freedom as well as reasonable work-life balance, the tagline “employer of choice” will continue to strain credibility. At the federal level, the current renewal initiative is a work in progress.
Branding A working definition of “brand,” adapted to a non-commercial context, is: “a promise that current and future employees, as well as clients/citizens and decision makers, can believe in.” This belief is based on sustained satisfactory experiences, as well as on overall perception of services provided. If a service is shoddy, uneven and uncaring, no amount of branding will improve perception. In short, you can only successfully brand something that actually consistently delivers on its “brand promise.” The brand is made real by the way every single employee behaves. A simple way of summing this up is: “Talk the walk (establish the brand) but first, be sure to walk the talk (live the brand).”
To a large extent, public services in Canada have already been branded, mostly negatively. So, to create conditions favourable to attracting and retaining top talent and shore up trust in public institutions, at least two actions are needed: a profound renewal of the culture and day-to-day practices of public services, and sustained efforts to re-brand or re-position public services in a way that accurately reflects the new approaches. A number of provinces and municipalities, as well as a few federal departments, have recently undertaken branding/re-branding exercises, with various degrees of success. In 2007, following a recommendation by the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service as well as direction from the Clerk in his Action Plan for PS Renewal, The Leadership Network was mandated to develop a comprehensive branding program. This initiative was abruptly cancelled in Spring 2008, but the framework document, developed by an expert panel, is still available on the web. In August 2011, an RFP was posted on MERX seeking bids on a similar exercise to be completed by this month. Branding/re-branding takes time, effort and perseverance, especially from senior management. In large organizations with diverse mandates, “umbrella” brands may have to be split into sub-brands and flexibility maintained to ensure long-term relevance of the brands’ expressions. Results will not be immediate and will vary depending on the original state of the organizations’ reputation. The need for deep-rooted and comprehensive re-branding is now greater than ever. The consequences of inaction or of a mostly cosmetic rush job leave no room for complacency. April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 19
Feature Performance management
Gregory Richards is professor of performance management at the Telfer School of Management and director of the IBM Centre for Business Analytics and Performance Management. He also coordinates the Interis Public Sector Performance Management Research Cluster.
The education of high performance managers Given the budgetary challenges facing most government organizations, the use of performance management techniques is expected to become even more important in the future. Yet, few managers receive formal training in the use of organizational performance management tools and techniques.
impact of uncontrollable events on organizational objectives. In addition, defining appropriate performance measures and using these measures to analyze and continually improve organizational performance is at the core of RBM.
Courses on the topic are available from private sector providers, but the majority of business schools do not specifically integrate the teaching of organizational performance management methods into their management education curriculum.
To meet the growing need for performance management savvy managers, business schools are introducing courses, and sometimes entire programs, focused on performance management and analytics. Although the programs vary widely in the specific courses offered, a few core fundamentals are noted. The foundation of many of the programs is using data to make informed decisions. Courses such as data mining, statistical analytics and business modelling tend to focus on this aspect. In addition, many programs include courses on information systems for managers. The objective is not to convert managers into IT staff, but to enable them to understand their information systems enough to retrieve and manipulate data. In addition to these foundational courses, schools also teach the mechanics of managing organizational performance such as the use of Balanced Scorecards or specific tools and methods used in particular sectors (for example, in the case of the Telfer School of Management’s program, introduction to public sector frameworks such as the Management Resources and Results Structure). Conceptually, the overall objective of these programs is to provide managers the tools they need to deliver on strategic outcomes. At the Cranfield School of Management, for example, the MSc program is entitled “Managing Organizational Performance.” One of the key
Cycles of change The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, established in 1881, is recognized by many as the first formalized, university-based management education program. Prior to Wharton, most management programs were provided by private training firms whose focus was on the mechanics of “organizing” such as the creation of budgets and direct supervision of staff. Following Wharton, hundreds of business schools emerged, but many were criticized for lack of academic rigour. Universities adjusted by hiring staff with strong academic credentials and by emphasizing research. Accordingly, research output improved but, some would argue, the focus on research rigour also insulated business schools from industry. Recently, most business schools have taken the approach of balancing academic rigour with industry partnerships to ensure that management education curricula meet practical requirements. Two salient factors endemic to the modern approach are relevancy and integration. Relevancy refers to continually adapting the curricu20 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
lum to reflect management competencies needed in organizations. Integration refers to ensuring linkages across the various courses so that graduates have a broader understanding of how each business function contributes to overall organizational effectiveness.
Public sector relevancy Public sector organizations contend with external trends not too dissimilar to those faced by all organizations: changing demographics, globalization, increased information intensity and environmental issues, to name a few. The public sector context, however, is typified by extensive work with information on a scale and scope that has a direct impact on the lives of a significant number of individuals. Information intensity is therefore a key challenge for public sector managers. They need to know how to work with the ever-increasing volume and variety of information available. And, of course, budget realities continually drive public sector organizations to improve efficiency. Accordingly, the adoption of ResultsBased Management (RBM) and attendant organizational performance management methods is a clear trend in public sector organizations worldwide. RBM is directly influenced by the ability of public sector managers to gather, analyze and understand external information to create effective plans and to understand the potential
Performance themes
Performance management FEAtuRE School of Management) also introduce students to process management and lean concepts. The rationale is that process measures can help to identify opportunities for improving efficiency at operational levels in organizations. Moreover, while many of the organizational performance management frameworks in the popular press tend to address strategic issues, process management focuses on the important operational level tactics key to organizational success.
courses is on the topic of “strategic performance” outlining the types of linkages required between strategy formulation and strategy execution. This approach, common in many of the programs in the various business schools, emphasizes the articulation of operational tactics linked to strategic objectives and definition of resources needed. In addition, the use of performance information and data analytics to better steer the organization towards success is also addressed. One of the key outcomes of these programs is that students learn how to manage through measures. They are introduced to the logic of measuring performance across the organization in order to continually explore whether resource deployment is as efficient as it could be and whether operational tactics are in fact leading to the desired strategic outcomes. Because it is not always easy to define measures in a public sector environment, many programs also address situations when measurement could be difficult. Some programs (i.e., Villanova, Telfer
Université d’Ottawa
Integration Recognizing that organizational performance draws on many different functional areas (strategy, finance and accounting, etc.), most programs tend to integrate course material across these functional areas, challenging students to make better use of systems thinking to resolve organizational problems. This is accomplished in a number of ways. In some situations courses are team taught by professors from different functional areas. In addition, integrative cases are used making use
of data sets that span different levels of the organization as well as a variety of functional areas. Furthermore, some programs are taught in a blended format: a combination of in-class and online modules that allow students time to reflect on the connections between modules from different organizational functions.
Conclusion Recent trends in management education programs include creating approaches that avoid courses taught in “silos.” Given the emphasis on managing performance in most public sector regimes around the world, and the fact that budgets continue to be tightened in most of these regimes, emerging programs on business analytics and performance management provide a sound foundation for managers (both in programs and through executive education offerings) to sharpen their analytic skills to make better decisions in a context characterized by large volumes of rapidly changing information.
University of Ottawa
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April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 21
Feature Policy
Roger Scott-Douglas is the assistant
secretary, Priorities and Planning Sector, at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. Previously he served as the assistant secretary of the Red Tape Commission Secretariat.
A commission’s lessons to cutting red tape The federal Red Tape Reduction Commission, which tabled its report in January 2012, considered 2,300 red tape irritants. It looked at 2,000 federal regulations in 14 different sectors and proposed systemic changes to the way government manages regulations and regulatory activities. It offered 90 specific recommendations associated with requirements of 18 federal regulatory departments and agencies, as well as 15 systemic recommendations aimed to reduce the overall administrative burden of all federal regulators. In broad terms, the Commission recommended reducing administrative burden on businesses by trimming information demands, enhancing the use of electronic services to reduce compliance costs, improving coordination of compliance activities, reusing information already provided by business and improving regulatory information on web portals. Recommendations also suggested fostering a strong service culture among regulators, connecting the dots for business that must deal with many regulators, and strengthening the use of plain language and definitive interpretations. The Commission also recommended increasing predictability for business through regulatory plans, improving assessment of risks and better understanding the impact of regulatory requirements on small businesses. Finally, the Commission made recommendations to ensure accountability for progress on reducing red tape. In tabling the report, the government announced the “one for one” rule, which requires regulators to remove at least one regulation each time they create a new one that imposes administrative burden on business. 22 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
Here are key lessons the Secretariat learned while supporting the Commission during the process:
Ensure, up-front, clarity of mandate and an effective governance mechanism. Clear terms of reference
were issued with specific objectives and a defined timeline. A focused project charter and broad consultations and work plan were developed. An effective governance model, with distinct roles for the lead minister and chair and supported by a senior executive, was put in place. A secretariat was quickly established, and drew regularly on an advisory committee of ADMs in regulatory departments. This ensured that the work of the secretariat linked to departmental regulatory agendas. A working group drawn from all regulatory departments and agencies was used to provide input, advice and fact checking.
Seek advice from a broad range of stakeholders as well as independent experts. Previous exercises began
internally, with regulators drawing up lists of administrative burden reductions. In contrast, the Commission reached out to business to identify where red tape priorities lay. Between January and March 2011, the Commission held 15 roundtable sessions in 13 cities, attracting nearly 200 participants. Online consultations – including with regulators – enabled hundreds of participants to give their views on where to cut federal red tape and how to ensure that lasting changes were made to ensure it did not creep back. Reported in the What Was Heard Report (September 2011), comments helped frame the Commission’s recommendations. The Commission engaged independent experts to assess the merits of the lasting, systemic changes proposed during the consultation phase. Their advice was in turn tested with two roundtables with businesses to ensure alignment with their concerns.
Be transparent with stakeholders and regulators. The Commission made every effort to be open and transparent throughout its process. Voices of stakeholders who appeared before the Commissions were faithfully transcribed in the What Was Heard Report. Participants in the online consultation had the option to share their submissions publicly, and all summaries of the roundtable sessions, lists of written submissions and the names of consultation participants were posted to the Commission’s website. Executive summaries of all the policy option papers written for the Commission were made public, providing further context to recommendations. Engaging the federal regulatory community was critical. Federal regulators were given full access to consultation input and helped analyze the 2,300 top-of-mind issues, striving to identify the “root causes” behind the irritants, and validate and cluster the irritants. Involving federal organizations concurrently allowed for grounding stakeholder input, commencing the change process to respond to the concerns of business, and identifying measured and realistic recommendations.
Provide leadership to remain goal oriented. Effective leadership was critical
to the Commission’s success. The prime minister set the tone by launching the initiative. The minister of State for Small Business and Tourism championed the work of the Commission. The president of the Treasury Board regularly engaged his ministerial colleagues in regulatory departments to advance the Commission’s work. Commission members contributed views from an entrepreneurial perspective and from that of members of Parliament. Assistant deputy ministers and directors general in all the involved departments played an active role in providing advice and support to the Secretariat.
Brent Wellsch is a policy and research analyst with Alberta Advanced Education and Technology. He is also an active member of IPAC’s New Public Servant’s Committee.
New Professionals
Globalization’s challenge for tomorrow’s public servants As a new public servant, I sometimes think about the future social and economic issues that will be front and centre during the tenure of my career, and in turn, what the role of governments will be in response. Admittedly, coming to a definitive conclusion is impossible. The nature of this question requires one to work within the realm of the unknown, predicting future trends and how these may play out. However, while definitive conclusions may not be possible, it seems reasonable to assume that future governments, and therefore public servants, will be increasingly confronted by issues with global roots: issues of breadth and scope that are of concern for the international community in general and beyond the capacity of any one order of government to address. Many future challenges will not be new in nature, but rather derivatives of current global issues. For example, the growing widespread global concern regarding key environmental issues is well documented. Rising global environmental consciousness has inspired (or required) many governments to establish domestic policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, translating this spirit into international action driven by a commonly shared strategic vision has been problematic. Sustaining governmental support for the infamous Kyoto Protocol (2005) is a primary example. While reasons for this may vary, the sheer fact that sustaining a commitment to Kyoto was challenging requires both present and future public servants to question “why was this so?”, and to seek innovative approaches to ensuring that cooperation and collaboration
among individual sovereign governments is both something that is attainable and sustainable for years to come. Recent global economic uncertainty has also provided national governments, including Canada, with cause for concern. The current Eurozone financial crisis reminds us that economic prosperity among relatively stable economies is not a given, and that the integration of strong national economies into one common economic union does involve risk. Canada has fared relatively well despite the current European fiscal collapse, a direct correlation, as some analysts claim, to the strong regulatory framework that governs the Canadian financial sector. However, Canada is not completely shielded from the negative ramifications of this event, and will almost certainly experience a slowdown in its national economic growth as a result of the recession in Europe. Moreover, there is no guarantee that Canada will fare as well in response to future global recessionary pressures, a potential reality that could have significant impact on Canadian public servants in the coming years. Building off of these examples, I challenge you to think about what both present and future public servants can take away from the events of today to better prepare for the events of tomorrow? I unfortunately do not have a crystal ball capable of predicting the future, nor do I claim to have a well-developed answer to this very important question. I simply position the above examples to illustrate that we as public servants do not work
in isolation of variables that are outside of our control. Instead, we work in dynamic environments that (at times) react to issues with causal roots that are beyond the preventive influence of any one government. I suppose that if I do have a thesis it would be that I expect these complex “global” problems to increase in relevance as my career progresses. Globalization is not a fad, it is alive and well, and is here to stay. As such, the interconnectedness of cultures, economies and even governments will continue to entrench itself within the fabric of human society. Given this, it is important that we recognize the linkages between our day-today work and the broader global picture to proactively prepare for events of this magnitude. Finally, in recognizing this, I posit that collaborative efforts across governments may enable public servants to respond rather than to react to such challenges. It will be valuable for public servants to reach out and work with colleagues across all levels of government to effectively meet these challenges. Issues of this nature do not abide by jurisdictional boundaries and I would suggest that, in response to these issues, neither should we. April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 23
PERFoRmANCE mANAGEmENt
Mike Haley is a board member of the Planning &
Performance Exchange (PPX) and practice lead for Landmark-Intersol, a strategic consulting alliance between Landmark Decisions and Intersol Group (mhaley@landmark.ca).
Technology’s role in performance culture Too few public sector organizations have truly embedded performance thinking into everyday decision making. Performance monitoring and reporting is still often considered a “necessary evil” to meet either corporate or central agency compliance reporting requirements. Frontline managers are getting increasingly frustrated with performance-based requests that are timeconsuming, tedious and error-prone. Advances in performance management technologies offer the promise of readily accessible information around the planning, monitoring and reporting processes central to any department’s ability to achieve organizational success. Yet technology can only be as useful as the quality of the information supplied. To design and develop high-quality performance content requires both a sound understanding of fundamental performance management principles and the availability and use of consistent performance tools like standardized guides, templates and supportive training. Performance technology provides the vital link for both building and deploying quality performance content. Performance technology like dashboards or scorecarding is a key component in both the “performance content design and development cycle” and the “performance awareness and decision cycle.” To succeed in using technology to improve organizational awareness and acceptance, “baby steps” is the name of the game. Each advance in the use of technology needs to be preceded by an increase in organizational learning. Similarly, each enhancement in performance understanding should be reinforced through the use of technology so these advancements get institutionalized. Figure 1 shows the need to balance the progress in performance understanding with the evolution of performance technology usage. To migrate from a stoic management environment, one needs either new business approaches or improved responsiveness via technology. Taking a 24 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
FIGURE 1. BALANCING INVESTMENT IN PERFORMANCE CONCEPTS AND TECHNOLOGY
unidirectional approach on either path, however, can be a challenge. Too much conceptual education without practical hands-on reinforcement often leads to a passive culture where rules and procedures are the order of the day and staff engagement is lost under the weight of the protocols. Conversely, applying technology in isolation generally results in managers being nervous and fearful of their next move or how to use this new found data access to support day-to-day operations. Moving too far down either path can create barriers that actually limit or even kill advancements on the other axis. If there is no understanding of the technology options ahead of time and the content is not crafted to best suit a viable solution, the best performance concepts in the world can be ineffective and actually work against the development of enterprise-wide acceptance and engagement. The trick, as Stephen Covey would say, is “begin with the end in mind.” These days there are a wide variety of leading-edge performance technologies from which to choose. In many cases, departments either have technology infrastructure that can be easily extended to take advantage of a number of high-quality
solutions or have performance technologies already installed, and perhaps implemented, within one or more program units. For the most part, although each technology will have its own strengths and weaknesses, all performance software has much of the core functionality required to properly visualize performance relationships and supporting data. The bottom line: most organizations can leverage what they already own or can easily acquire without turning a performance enhancement project into a major technology procurement. A careful assessment of the organizational gaps in performance understanding and performance content development, hand-in-hand with a review of exactly what technology capabilities the organization has at its disposal, should be the first step to embarking on any major performance improvement initiative.
PPX will hold its 16th annual symposium May 29-31 in Ottawa. To learn more about planning and performance management and connect with other practitioners or to register, visit www.ppx.ca.
Procurement
John Read provides procurement consulting services to public sector clients. He served for almost 15 years in the Public Works procurement arena.
Just what is competition? The next time you hear someone argue that government procurement has to be based on competition, you might ask, “what do you mean by competition?” Competition is no single and simple thing. It depends on individual definitions and circumstances. And depending on them, the results of “competition” can be good, mediocre or bad. The federal government’s Contracts Regulations say that, “before any contract is entered into, the contracting authority shall solicit bids.” Essentially this calling for bids is both the government’s definition of “competition” and what most people think about when they say that government procurement has to be competitive. The government has gone further: the call for bids should be open to any potential supplier. The open call is transparent so that everyone can see what the government is buying. It is fair to suppliers: everyone plays by the same rules. It supports broader access to government contracts, including helping new suppliers enter the market because they know where the opportunities are and can bid when they choose. It keeps “old” suppliers on their toes, since they face the constant threat of new competitors. It encourages all bidders to “sharpen their pencils,” so that the government and taxpayers get better value for money. This definition of competition usually works best when suppliers offer similar goods or services as relative equals. It can work less effectively when there is clear differentiation between products or services, or when there are some very large potential suppliers and some smaller ones. In such cases, competition starts to be be-
tween “less equals” and, in extreme cases, can be between suppliers that are demonstrably not equal. What looks like competition is more like a midget hockey team playing the Stanley Cup champions. Competition can actually have a perverse effect. Suppliers invest in research and development hoping to strengthen their position in the marketplace and thus distinguish them from their competitors. The government’s bidding approach – not only what it says it needs to buy, but the design of the selection process for the eventual contractor – tends to negate this. Consider an apparently successful action: a “winner” found from several competing bids. Does this mean there was effective competition? What if none of the leading suppliers in the industry bid – and suppose that their reasons included not only the design of the procurement, but the government’s terms of payment, or an unwillingness to work with the buying department based on negative past experience, or simply that they were already busy. The best of a mediocre lot: is that competition? Every supplier has a business model chosen to maximize its chance of success and profitability based on price, or quality, or service or location. However, most public procurement imposes artificial rules set by the buyer to meet its apparent needs and, all too often, not a match to how the supplier community regularly works. There may be “fairness,” since all potential bidders follow the same artificial rules foreign to their established ways of doing business, but if the rules do not allow suppliers to bid based on their strengths, is
the process really competition, and is the result likely to be best value? Sometimes competition is not about competition at all but about sole-source contracting. For many, sole-sourcing is bad, equated with preferential and therefore unfair treatment, and denying access to other suppliers. The issue is trust. No matter how sound a government decision to sole-source may be, any such action is going to be questioned as to motive. As a result, every sole-sourcing proposal is thoroughly examined and challenged; resulting calls for bids can be prophylactic. Once again the buyer’s actions may go directly against how the marketplace works. A supplier invests time, effort and resources into developing a unique service offering: it “competes” against its marketplace competitors and “wins” only to find that the government cannot or will not buy. The successful competitor is denied the fruits of that victory. Is that competition? PWGSC’s Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program helps companies bridge the pre-commercialization gap for their innovative goods or services. Innovation and commercialization are good – now, how about focusing on attracting, dealing with and benefiting from the goods and service offerings of other suppliers of demonstrated excellence? True competition requires broad-based actions that attract the best possible suppliers, able and willing to propose their best solutions to meet government needs. True competition reduces barriers, wherever and whatever they may be. It’s not just about calling for bids. So, the next time you hear someone argue… April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 25
tHE lEADER’s BooKsHElF
Harvey Schachter writes The Globe and Mail’s Managing Books and Monday Morning Manager columns. He is a freelance writer specializing in management issues.
Don’t say it, draw it
Blah Blah Blah Dan Roam Portfolio, 350 pages, $29.95 Words, words, words. Blah, blah, blah. Our days – our work lives – are punctuated by a sea of words. We use words to communicate. We use words to not communicate. We use words to share our ideas, to propel our innovation. Think of a recent meeting and you’ll likely think of blah, blah, blah. But we can think and communicate through more than words. And a series of books in recent years have tried to help us to shift, adding a visual component to our meetings, communications, thinking and brainstorming. Presentations specialist Dan Roam, who authored two of the books, says that blah, blah, blah is killing our ability to think, learn, work and lead. Instead of clarity, we have fog – complexity, misunderstanding and boredom. “Ever left a meeting more confused than when you entered? Ever watched two hours of cable news and knew that you knew less about the world? Ever stifled another yawn during another conference room bullet-point bonanza? You get the picture,” he writes in Blah, Blah Blah. He has even developed something he calls a Blah-Blahmeter to help us evaluate how bad the situation is. It has a scale – one to three blahs – for rating how miserable the situation is. The conversation, meeting or presentation is merely
26 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
Visual Meetings David Sibbet John Wiley, 262 pages, $35.95 blah when the intent is to illuminate, the topic is complicated, and the message ends up boring. You’ve been to a lot of those sessions, undoubtedly, earnest but ineffective. It moves up the scale of awfulness to blah-blah when the intent is to obfuscate, the idea is missing and the message is foggy. It’s blah-blah-blah when the intent is to divert, the idea is rotten and the message is misleading. By contrast, a no-blah event occurs when the intent is to clarify, the idea is simple and the message is clear. Both Roam and David Sibbet, who specializes in graphic facilitation, believe that sharpened meetings and sharpened thinking can flow from reducing words and enhancing the visuals in our communication. In Visual Meetings, Sibbet notes that when we think of meetings, we automatically think of words. Instead, he argues, the first thought that should come to our minds is visuals. And not PowerPoint, by the way. Instead, our meetings should revolve around a panorama of visual design, stimulating thought and recording our progress. So flipcharts, with sketches and doodles that express our thoughts in vivid fashion. Instead of proposing an idea with blah, blah, blah you might draw it as part of a
The Back of The Napkin Dan Roam Portfolio, 278 pages, $24.95 map that the group collectively creates to plot its journey together on a project. Or you might write it on sticky notes that could then be grouped on a wall with your colleagues’ suggestions. “My confidence in this way of working is rooted in three phenomena that I have experienced since the first time I picked up magic markers and began facilitating groups visually,” he writes. He argues engagement explodes in meetings when participants are listened to and acknowledged by having what they say recorded in an interactive, graphic way. Second, a group can think in a big picture way when their ideas are shown visually, allowing everyone to check for patterns or connections more easily. Third, creating memorable media increases the group’s memory and follow-through. Of course, this is not totally foreign to us. Our meetings occasionally have some of these tools. But it’s occasional, while blah, blah, blah rules. He believes the visual element should be routine, a starting point to energize our thinking and the meetings. If you’re like me, you may wince, not eager to have your inability to draw be shared with your colleagues. But both Sibbet and Roam are not talking artistry. They are talking stick figures and other
tHE lEADER’s BooKsHElF simple sketches that theoretically any one of us can do. In The Back Of The Napkin, Roam sets out basic shapes like circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, arrows, straight lines, happy faces and stick figures as the basic sketching tools you will need. The most successful airline of our era, by the way, started with a sketch of a triangle on a napkin, he reminds us. Rollin King, who was closing his regional airline, told his lawyer Herb Kelleher that instead of running a small airline that services small towns it made sense to run a small airline servicing big cities. He drew the triangle and marked the three edges: Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. It was neat and simple, unlike the spaghetti of lines that depicted the complicated routes of the traditional airlines servicing big centres, and Southwest Airlines was born. Of course, there was undoubtedly some blah, blah, blah at that luncheon meeting. And if the sketch had not been drawn, the airline might still have been developed. But the clarity of the sketch helped to make it more appealing, Roam believes. “Visual thinking means taking advantage of our innate ability to see – both with our eyes and our mind’s eye – in order to discover ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those ideas quickly and intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way that they simply ‘get’,” he says. Essentially, he is arguing that the shapes we draw are an extension of our thinking. He observes it’s a more balanced way of thinking, bringing together
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different elements of our brain. “The reason for all the blah, blah, blah is that we’ve simply forgotten how to use both our minds. For 30,000 years, humans have been making marks on walls (then on paper, and more recently on touch screens) to reflect our thoughts. For 25,000 of those years, we drew pictures. Only in the past 5,000 years did we begin the gradual shift to writing words. The problem is that now we have gone too far,” he says. In The Back Of The Napkin, Roam tells us there are six fundamental questions that guide how we see things and then how we show things. Each question has one dominant visual method – a simpleto-draw visual method – for displaying the results of your thinking: • The who and the what: As we start to get oriented to a situation, our thinking commences with who and what. Take the example he gives of a training manager who is struggling to come to grips with the many programs at her new company; for her, the thinking (and sketching) begins with who gets trained, who does the training, what topics are taught and what lessons are presented. This is best depicted visually through portrait-style sketches, perhaps a video camera to show the method of delivering programs and a number of stick figures or simple portraits of faces to represent those who will be attending a course. • The how many and how much: Next we quantify what we have been
seeing. How many lessons are required and how much time do they take? How many people can attend each lesson, and how many instructors are needed? Charts capture this aspect of the problem. • The where: Spatial orientation follows. Where will the lessons take place? In the company’s stores, in training facilities or at home? A map can illuminate this issue, perhaps also capturing the conceptual issue of where the lessons might overlap in content, structure or intended audience. • The when: The training manager must address when do the lessons take place and in what sequence do they need to occur? A timeline will help here. • The how: How does one lesson relate to another? How do you know when you are ready to move on from the subject matter you are studying? Flowcharts reveal these linkages. • The why: Everything must be brought together to understand the core of the issue. This will be the most complicated chart, with a coterie of the variables displayed in one creative sketch. So imagine your next meeting as a blizzard of sketches instead of a sea of words. Not no words, but a better balance between words and visual thinking, adding up, together, hopefully, to a no-blah zone. To help you get there, any of these books could be helpful, but I’d probably suggest The Back Of The Napkin and Visual Meetings as a combo.
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April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 27
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Governing Digitally
Jeffrey Roy is associate professor in the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University (roy@dal.ca).
“Entergagement” The future of digital media and government If 2012 marks the surpassing of compact disks by digital music, equally profound changes are also on the horizon with respect to television. While electronics producers struggle with declining profit margins on increasingly affordable and high-resolution boxes (i.e., the hardware), the real innovations just beginning to take shape are software and content driven. Apple, Google, Facebook and others are all competing to devise new and winning formulas to bring technological convergence into the purview of mainstream broadcasting. For Apple, this may mean a new television set of its own making whereas Google has already launched its own platform promising both traditional and original programming. Google TV presents itself as “a new experience that combines TV, the entire web, and apps – as well as a way to search across them all.” Much like their counterparts in the music sector, traditional broadcasting companies and cable providers understand full well that profound changes are underway. For governments too, this shifting digital landscape raises large and consequential matters of which three stand out. First and most widely recognized is the matter of Canadian content. A myriad of regulatory issues present themselves, reflecting philosophical divisions over the meaning of culture as either a largely market determination or a societal endeavour meriting additional support. Continental versus national parameters are naturally at play; it is not unimportant that most all of the new, large and powerful software companies seeking to reshape television are American-based. Second, there is the matter of how gov-
ernments communicate with and inform the citizenry on policy and service issues in both affordable and equal ways. Public sector television advertising has come to denote a large and influential expenditure justified on the basis of its coherent reach across large segments of society. Governments today are ever-more challenged to rethink their own messaging and mixing of channels, and this task will only grow more complex as digital media offerings multiply and fragment across traditional and new providers. Third, and perhaps least recognized, are questions of public engagement in a digital universe that is increasingly entertainmentcentric. Facebook may house important political discussions from time to time, but its primary mission is to become a one-stop platform for entertainment and mainly hedonistic forms of communication. If social media is to be the policymaking platform of the future, it is not clear that outsourcing such a venue to the private sector is the ideal way to go. As one British columnist recently asked, perhaps it is time to consider nationalizing Facebook in light of its monopolistic ambitions and the public interest stakes at hand. As with Microsoft yesterday – and to some degree Google today – such a course of action is too costly and overly complex, but the underlying concerns should not be ignored. Compounding the complexity of this third matter is demographic change and widening social and consumption cleavages in terms of media access and usage. Most studies indicate that older people tend to watch the most television, most of it via traditional boxes and cable providers. For private and public advertis-
ing, then, identifying and reaching this group is a relatively straightforward affair. Moreover, through the television era of the 20th century, informing more than engaging was government’s primary mission here. By contrast, younger people have less and less affinity with traditional offerings much as they are flocking to smart devices and social media networks. These groups are most targeted by Google and company, with the prospect of more individualized consumption patterns a near certainty. For governments, communicating and informing will also become more challenging and costly, whereas consulting and engaging such diverse and dispersed groupings may well risk becoming altogether elusive. YouTube is a telling example. Initially lauded as a source of self-expression and empowerment, Google’s most recent pronouncements are to add sophistication and more polished offerings (in line with its fledging television ambitions). It is hard to fault Google for targeting entertainment and commercialization as it relentlessly pursues profitability: the offsetting questions of public engagement are first and foremost for governments to address. The collaborative potential of today’s still-nascent Web 2.0 era is real; it emerges organically within a more networked civil society and competitively, orchestrated by market investors and incentives. The underlying and ever-evolving digital universe in terms of infrastructure and content does not come with an obvious or guaranteed role for public sector engagement. Governments must instead think creatively and aggressively as to how best to nurture it. April 2012 // Canadian Government Executive / 29
Opinion
David Zussman holds the Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa (dzussman@uOttawa.ca).
How to cut regulatory red tape In recent months, the attention of Canadians has been focused on the March 29 federal budget and its implications for various stakeholder groups. However, the federal government has been actively pursuing its agenda to trim the size and reach of government in a number of other ways. While regulatory reform has been on the public agenda for decades, there is little evidence that previous efforts to streamline the regulatory environment or create a smart regulatory system have been particularly successful. Canada has built an extensive regulatory regime with more than 70 departments and agencies developing over 2,600 federal regulations that require 13,000 employees to manage. In addition, on average, 250 new regulations are promulgated each year. To appreciate the scale of regulatory requirements in Canada, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimates that regulatory compliance for all three levels of government costs $30.5 billion to businesses each year. Recently, a government appointed Red Tape Reduction Commission (see page 22) tabled a wide-ranging report. It recommends numerous ways for the federal government to be less intrusive in the small- and mediumsized business sector (SME) by reducing red tape and transforming the regulatory system by removing “hidden taxes” which are deemed to be “silent killer of jobs.” The report, “Cutting Red Tape: Freeing Business to Grow,” is an interesting combination of pro-small business rhetoric and anti-government sentiment, which is especially ironic given that the report directly targets the government’s own public service as the root of most of the weaknesses in the current system. The tasks of the commission were to identify irritants to businesses, which have “clear detrimental effects on growth, competitiveness and innovation,” and to provide recommendations to address the ir30 / Canadian Government Executive // April 2012
ritants and “reduce the compliance burden on a lasting basis without harming the environment or the health and safety of Canadians.” To accomplish these goals, the government appointed a commission comprised of five Conservative Members of Parliament, the CEO of Canada’s foremost interest group for SMEs and the owners of five mediumsized enterprises. After conducting a limited form of online consultation, inviting written submissions from interested parties, and meeting with stakeholders during a series of roundtables, the commission tabled an interim report in September 2011 that listed more than 2,300 regulatory irritants to SMEs. As a result of these data gathering events, the commission concluded there are several root causes that prevent the government from scaling down the regulatory requirements for Canadian business. In their view, regulatory activities are not well managed and, in an effort to avoid mistakes, public servants routinely err on the side of caution by demanding more compliance, paperwork, inspections and audits from businesses. As a consequence, the commission makes 15 general recommendations to limit the federal government’s demands for more regulation. In its view, governments need to design a more rigorous approval process that builds regulations “from the outside in,” applies common sense to all aspects of regulatory activity, holds regulators accountable for regulatory activities, and strikes a balance between compliance and service excellence. Specifically, the commission has some interesting ideas about scaling down the regulatory agenda. Its centerpiece suggestion is for the government to adopt a “one-for-one” rule, where the government eliminates a regulation for each one
that it adds. As well, they suggest annual reports on performance and service improvement, the publication of a service charter, and giving the Auditor General a mandate to review and report on progress in reducing administrative burden. With the emphasis on performance measurement, the commission also recommends that a portion of the pay-at-risk for senior public servants should be based on the successful implementation of the onefor-one rule. Given all of the media attention directed to the March budget, the commission’s report is a good reminder that government’s reach goes well beyond spending and taxing. Regulation is an important policy instrument and it has a significant impact on the business sector and therefore on the overall performance of the economy. While the authors are not very optimistic that any of their recommendations will be adopted, they have submitted an interesting report that challenges conventional thinking, describes what success would look like and proposes a reasonable implementation timetable. It deserves Parliament’s attention.
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