Michael Sabia, Clerk of the Privy Council, sent a message to the federal public service in July that can be boiled down into a mantra of three words: focus, simplify and accountability.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Allen Sutherland is the president and chief executive officer of the Institute on Governance.
On July 7, Canada’s new top public servant, the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet Michael Sabia, sent a message to the federal public service. Cut to its essentials, that message can be boiled down into a mantra of three words: focus, simplify and accountability.
The fate of the government – and, perhaps, even of the country – could well depend on the public service’s success in evolving to meet “the compelling opportunity” of the moment. That’s an opportunity that Mr. Sabia stresses Canada “cannot miss.”
On focus, his instruction is to stay on target to deliver on the seven missions outlined in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mandate letters to his Cabinet Ministers and Secretaries of State.
In them, Mr. Carney called for the establishment of a new economic and security relationship with the United States and further collaboration with reliable trading partners and allies around the world; the building of one Canadian economy by removing barriers to interprovincial trade and identifying and expediting nation-building projects; the lowering of costs for Canadians and helping them to get ahead; making housing more affordable by unleashing the power of public-private co-operation and catalyzing a modern housing industry; the protection of Canadian sovereignty, the strengthening of the Canadian Armed Forces, the securing of our borders, and the reinforcement of law enforcement; the ability to attract the best talent in the world to help build our economy, while returning our overall immigration rates to sustainable levels; and the reduction of spending on government operations so that Canadians can invest more in people and businesses.
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How is the public service supposed to fulfill this daunting to-do list? In his letter, Mr. Sabia notes that the public service’s job “is to be disciplined and concentrate,” i.e., resist distractions from the missions. This is entirely on message with the Prime Minister’s statements to Canadians and the early demanding tone he has struck with the public service. Add to this Mr. Carney’s recently announced public-service budget cuts – consistent with the mission of reducing government-operations spending – and the internal pressures to demonstrate relevancy are undeniably intense. Or, put another way, this is DOGE, Canadian-style: similarly demanding and in a hurry but better organized and done with the public service, and not to it.
On the matter of simplify, Mr. Sabia focuses on his apparent bête noire: excessive process. He goes out of his way to criticize such burdens, noting “there is always the risk that following the process is so time-consuming that everything slows down – at a time when we need to speed up because the world is moving as fast as it is.” Mr. Sabia clearly does not subscribe to the view that good process leads to good outcomes. Instead, he argues that “when the standard operating procedures (i.e., process) just don’t work any more, rigorous debate is the best path to the best decisions.”
And what are the terms of this debate? Will we be playing by Queensberry rules, or is it playoff hockey – or even a barfight? Shades of all? Here, Mr. Sabia may be attempting to refute a vision of process that sees engagement as an end in itself (hint: it’s not) and replace it with a view of process as a servant to effective decision-making (which it is).
This argument flows seamlessly to his message’s third theme – accountability – which he divides into two key elements: senior-management-informed structured decision-making, and personal accountability based on commitment and initiative. That’s heady stuff for a public service that has been schooled in spreading responsibility up and out, while working incessantly and sometimes perniciously to derisk initiatives. Instead, choices are to be made and decisions must be implemented – and they better be the right ones.
As a final note, Mr. Sabia singles out diversity in thought. This is certainly important, but is nevertheless a departure from the recent emphasis on the representational aspects of diversity. Here, he may be seeking to tap into non-traditional and often contrarian thinking that aims to circumvent an otherwise logjammed status quo. “Listening to the open and honest debates” is what the public service needs, according to Mr. Sabia, in order to capitalize on the differing perspectives of diversity.
Given this unflinching direction, interdepartmental meetings may never be the same.