Opinion: If Canada wants to recapture the national ambition of the 1960s, it must seriously cut the bloat

Open this photo in gallery:

The Canadian flag flies on the roof of the West Block on Parliament Hill.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Donald Savoie is the author of Speaking Truth to Canadians about Their Public Service.

Ottawa is setting Canada on a new course, one that looks to natural resources and large infrastructure projects to reduce our economic dependence on the U.S. economy. The One Canada Economy Act and the recent federal budget provide the blueprint, and the Major Projects Office will lead the charge. The approach holds promise, and polls suggest that Canadians support it.

It is an ambitious agenda – but Canada has, in the past, successfully pursued ambitious agendas. Think of the 1960s, when governments built the TransCanada Highway, implemented a national Medicare program and introduced the Canada Pension Plan; the list goes on.

But back then, there was no need for special offices. To top it off, the federal government ran a surplus at the end of the decade, even when combining capital and expenditure spending.

Ottawa’s organizational structure was straightforward back then. By the late 1960s, it only had 20 or so departments and agencies and only three officers of Parliament; today, there are well over 100 departments and agencies and nine officers. Looking at the nine in isolation of one another, one could make a case for all of them; taken together, however, they impose a financial burden on government and discourage departments from taking risks.

The next steps the Liberals must take to restore Canada’s fiscal stability

Opinion: Ottawa’s bureaucracy has too many managers who are busy managing their own bloat

In 1970, about 75 per cent of federal public servants worked in the regions delivering programs, projects and services; today, the number is down to 56 per cent. In 1970, central agencies were small, operating in a limited mandate. The Treasury Board Secretariat, for example, had a permanent staff of about 450. Today, it has 2,374 employees. In 1970, ministerial offices only employed two or three political staffers; today, the number is anywhere between 12 and 25. In 1970, Ottawa only had one department for regional development; there are now seven regional agencies pursuing the same mandate that only one department had.

All these departments, agencies and oversight bodies want a voice at the decision-making table. Some are there to make sure that their perspectives are heard, and others are there to ensure that a multitude of regulations and requirements are respected. Meetings are highly valued; decisions, less so.

Inadvertently or not, Parliament and the government have created a big whale that can’t swim – one bogged down by oversight bodies and multiple voices that want to be heard. Establishing a Major Projects Office will add a voice at the table, but it is unlikely that it will be able to teach the whale how to swim again. And if history is any guide, squeezing 40,000 employees out of the public service over the next five years, as Mr. Carney’s budget announced, will have limited short-term effect.

The cuts will likely again fall on regional and local offices, which is hardly the way to strengthen the government’s ability to deliver initiatives or pursue major projects. We know this because similar squeezing efforts introduced in 2011-12, 1995-97 and the late 1970s proved to only have a temporary effect. When policy-makers turn their attention elsewhere, the federal public service will again grow, because all departments and agencies will go back to asking for more resources.

A more promising approach is to take a look at programs that have passed their best-before dates and scrutinize the growing number of departments and agencies. For one, Ottawa should be asking if we still need seven regional agencies. The federal government should try harder to stay in its lane and deal with its core responsibilities, such as national defence. It should also ask provinces to look after their constitutional responsibilities, thus avoiding costly duplications.

Another place for cuts would be the Canada School of Public Service, which spends $94-million annually and, beyond its responsibility for second-language training, would be hard-pressed to show it has contributed to better management. France did away with its École Nationale d’Administration in 2021 and Britain shut down its National School of Government in 2012. The United States, meanwhile, has long rejected efforts to establish a Public Service Academy.

There are many other government agencies that should be reviewed, particularly given Ottawa’s difficult fiscal situation. Parliament should also ask if it needs nine officers, when other Commonwealth parliaments make do with less; Australia, for example, has only four. Dealing with these questions would let the whale swim like it did in the 1960s.

As is often the case, Ottawa has a well-honed capacity to define a new approach and new policies. Where it fails is in the implementation. The test will be not in announcing new projects, but in how Ottawa will declutter the machinery of government and empower those on the front line trying to make the approach work.