The federal public service plays a vital role in Canada’s development by helping to shape public policies and deliver programs and services to Canadians. Speaking Truth to Canadians about Their Public Service provides a comprehensive review of the challenges confronting the public service, how the relationship between politicians and career officials has evolved in recent years, and what motivates public servants.
Donald Savoie calls on Canadians and their politicians to consider what they want from their federal public service. Answering this question requires a fresh look at the government’s traditional accountability requirements, how policies are shaped, and how government programs and services are delivered. It also requires a review of ambitious modernization and reform measures launched over the past forty years to make the public service more accommodating to political direction and to improve program delivery. Dividing federal public servants into two groups – poets (those who write policy) and plumbers (those who deliver programs and services) – the book establishes who has the upper hand. This division sheds new light on the theories that seek to explain the attitudes and behaviours of career government officials.
Amid increasingly strong signs that the public service is in need of a reset, Speaking Truth to Canadians about Their Public Service concludes with practical recommendations to assist Canadians and their politicians in defining what they want their public service to be.
Authors
- Published in
- Montreal, CA
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- SPEAKING TRUTH TO CANADIANS ABOUT THEIR PUBLIC SERVICE 2
- Title 4
- Copyright 5
- Dedication 6
- CONTENTS 8
- Preface 10
- Introduction 18
- 1 The Setting and the Machinery 35
- 2 Inward Looking 59
- 3 Poets and Plumbers 79
- 4 The Unwritten Code 98
- 5 Bolts of Lightning 120
- 6 Try Grabbing Smoke 145
- 7 Ministers: The Buck Does Not Stop There 164
- 8 Deputy Ministers: On the Inside Looking Everywhere 186
- 9 Own What You Do 205
- 10 What Do Canadians Want the Federal Public Service to Be? 224
- 11 Attitudes, Values, and Behaviours 244
- 12 What Now? 263
- Notes 276
- Index 320