Canada’s public service is stuck in ‘analog’ and the world ‘has moved on’: Former clerk
The public service is not keeping pace with Canadians’ needs in a digital world, says the woman who used to lead it.
“The public service is still working in what I would describe as kind of analog ways and the world has moved on,” former clerk of the Privy Council Janice Charette, told Rosemary Barton Live in an interview airing Sunday.
“You can make a dinner reservation, you can book a cruise, you can move money in and out of your bank account, transfer between the two of us — it’s remarkable the things you can do in a digital world and the public service, and our service delivery infrastructure has not kept up with that.”
It’s a gap that Charette said was on display when the public service couldn’t deliver services such as passports once COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
“In all humility, we know we have to do a better job there,” she said.
Proud of initial pandemic response
Charette, who refers to her job as being “steward of one of the most important institutions in our democracy,” retired Friday after nearly 40 years in the service, including stints as clerk for prime ministers Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau.
Reflecting on her tenure, Charette said she’s proud of the way the public service jumped into action during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, spending billions to support people and businesses.
“One of the things I completely believe about public service is that in a crisis we can be magnificent,” she said.
“Decisions had to move quickly, benefits had to move quickly … and the challenge is, how do you maintain that going forward?”
As the lockdowns lifted, services lagged and frustrations grew.
The government was put on the defensive last year when passport offices were overwhelmed by a surge of applications.
The immigration department was also caught on its back foot by demand. At one point last year more than 2.4 million applications were stuck waiting for processing.
“I think in the public service maybe we underestimated how quickly people were going to want to return to their lives, how quickly they were gonna want to travel and have their passports, and how quickly we were gonna start the immigration system, how much people were going to want to move,” Charette said.
“This was not the best of times for the public service because we underestimated that ramp-up.”
Charette defends outside contracts
Another issue for her successor, John Hannaford, will be how to handle procuring outside consultations.
The auditor general is reviewing the millions of dollars worth of contracts the federal government awarded to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company following news reports.
Charette said she believes there are times when it makes sense to bring in outside experts.
“The public service is not and never should be seen as a source of all knowledge,” she said.
“There are many cases where, whether it’s something which is a temporary need or a specialized kind of need, that we don’t want to build it inside the public service. It’s actually more economical and more efficient and maybe better for the public that we actually go out and get external expertise.”
Besides being the head of the public service, the clerk acts as the deputy minister to the prime minister and secretary to the cabinet.
“I have had the honour of sitting in the cabinet room for some of the most fascinating conversations about issues that really matter to Canadians,” Charette told Barton.
That would have included the tense discussions in February 2022 around whether or not the government should invoke the Emergencies Act.
Didn’t want to be ‘intimidated’ by Emergencies Act decision
As clerk, Charette recommended the government use the never-before-used law to clear anti-public health measure protests that had gridlocked downtown Ottawa for nearly a month.
That decision thrust her into the spotlight when she was later called to testify at the Public Order Emergency Commission last fall and defended her rationale.
While Commissioner Paul Rouleau ultimately ruled that the federal government met the threshold needed to invoke the Emergencies Act, the government’s decision remains polarizing for many across the country.
WATCH | Charette defends advice at Emergencies Act inquiry
Janice Charette told the Emergencies Act inquiry that there is a broader definition of a threat of violence than the one identified by CSIS, and it was this broader definition that led to her recommending the PM invoke the Emergencies Act.
Charette said she couldn’t let the unprecedented use of the act scare her and other decision-makers away from using it if it was needed.
“I remember very much thinking we have never used this piece of legislation, so implicit in that is you’re going to make history, but you also don’t want to be intimidated by that either,” she said.
“The public service is known for being risk-averse. You don’t want to bring a bias, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s such a big thing. Oh, maybe we shouldn’t do it.’ Is it the right instrument at the right time with all the right protections around it?”
Charette said many protesters had “totally legitimate questions.”
“There’s only so long you can kind of hold people back. Then there’s like, OK, well, what about me? What about my interest in my family’s interest?” she said.
“The concern for me was this other element that we saw creeping into it and it almost felt like there some taking advantage of what was a widespread protest, a widespread debate going on, by people who had a different point to make.”
