Michael Sabia, who has been appointed as Clerk of the Privy Council, may face a plethora of roadblocks on the path to public service reform.Jenna Muirhead/The Globe and Mail
David McLaughlin was Manitoba’s clerk of the executive council, cabinet secretary, and head of the public service and former chief of staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney.
Canada’s public service has a new top dog. Michael Sabia, a former deputy finance minister and CEO in both the public and private sectors, was appointed by Prime Minister Mark Carney as Clerk of the Privy Council, cabinet secretary, and head of the public service.
“I can’t think of a better person to be Clerk of the Privy Council than Michael Sabia,” said Canada’s pre-eminent governance guru, Professor Donald Savoie, who has written extensively on the need to reform the federal public service. Will he think the same way after Mr. Sabia eventually departs? Based on how he has assessed previous clerks, perhaps not.
“Federal public servants do see the problems in government operations, but only in retirement,” Prof. Savoie wrote about past clerks in his newest book Speaking Truth to Canadians About Their Public Service. In other words, they do little to nothing about fixing the public service when they have the power and authority. Then they write about it extensively after they leave.
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Myriad reasons explain this. The policy pace and political demands on clerks to implement the governing agenda of the day are always top priority. Crises like COVID can appear and suck up any oxygen available for fixing public service plumbing. Even if a clerk was so inclined, their average tenure in the job is not long – around three years, which is not much runway to effect lasting change. Finally, any public service reform requires the active and sustained support of the prime minister of the day. They always have other priorities.
Mr. Sabia will know this well. He served under Paul Tellier, the last PCO clerk who initiated a serious root-and-branch public service modernization back in 1989, called Public Service 2000. The PM of the day, Brian Mulroney, was supportive. It made progress, but soon enough, events overtook it. An economic recession, a public service wage freeze followed by a strike, and a government consumed by constitutional negotiations and implementing free trade all robbed it of precious momentum and focus.
Today’s times are no less perilous for public service reform. Paradoxically, that makes the need that much more urgent. The PM’s mantra for the country is “build, baby, build.” Mr. Carney cannot achieve transformative change for the country without bringing transformative change to the country’s public service.
The federal government has grown too much, too fast. It is risk-averse in culture. Accountability for results is missing. Internal expertise is lacking so it is outsourced to consultants. And the system is worn and stressed from the pandemic experience, struggling with poor data systems, outdated technology and sclerotic processes.
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Can any clerk fix it? As long as he juggles three hats, the answer is no.
Public service reform is just one of his jobs, as head of the public service. But it will always take a back seat to the daily demands of the clerk’s other two jobs: advancing the government’s agenda as de facto deputy minister to the prime minister and co-ordinating whole-of-government execution as cabinet secretary. It’s why reform initiatives typically get assigned to a task force of deputy ministers to study and report, as the outgoing clerk did with his values and ethics report last year.
Short of giving up this role, how can the new clerk make good on needed reform? Here are four ways.
First, mission-shift the Privy Council Office’s role to become the “chief enabling office” of the government of Canada. Don’t run the government from the centre. Focus instead on achieving goals and results by deploying resources and integrating activities across the whole of government.
Second, appoint a chief operating officer with real authority for improving public service operations, productivity and performance. Make superior performance and delivering at the speed-of-need the driving ethos of what government does.
Third, seize the moment and undertake a state capacity review of the public service that is citizen-focused and mission-outward, not bureaucrat-focused and process-inward. Make this the vehicle for aligning roles, responsibilities, machinery, leadership, performance and culture to transform the public service from what it is to what is needed.
Fourth, establish a formal board of external advisers gleaned from both the public and private sectors to provide regular advice and guidance. Use them to ensure real momentum to the state capacity review while challenging and scrutinizing the PCO’s own performance.
The new Prime Minister is ambitious, active and even impatient to get things done. He has already brought a new tone at the top. Now he and his new clerk need to bring in public service reform from the top.