New Clerk of the Privy Council

The departure of Kevin Lynch and his replacing by Wayne Wouters, now Secretary of the Treasury Board, suggests a number of things. Lynch, when DM of Industry, was a believer in innovation and funding of research. As ex-DM of Finance, he probably supports spending wisely to help Canada weather the recession. These policy approaches are contrary to this government's view, and he is the kind of man who is not afraid to promote his views. Remember that this is a government that does not like being told things it doesn't want to hear.

Wayne is a gentleman and a genuinely nice guy. He probably has taken the post out of a sense of duty - its hard to say 'no' to the PM. From this government's point of view, he is less likely to be a strong advocate for policies they don't like.

No more hot Eire

Someone is actually defending the public service! In Ireland, of all places, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore called for the government to stop scapegoating public servants (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0209/breaking84.htm). This is a politician no less! - and definitely not a North American.

Weep for the nation's capital

The strike is over. After 61 days there are no winners, a true testament to civic and federal government ineptitude. It may be true, as Andrew Cohen has said, that we get the government we deserve. Certainly in the case of Ottawa's civic government, we aren't getting much. To return to a theme, I think it's because the city is full of public servants who a) are inclined to simply grin and bear it in the best "serve our masters" attitude and b) who risk getting into trouble if they actually get involved in politics. Also, with the demise of the NCC into a festival generator whose definition of vision includes the Kettle Island bridge and statues at Rideau and Sussex, any legitimate leadership aimed at making something out of the national capital has been lost.

In fact, where was Ottawa in the February '09 federal budget? Nowhere. With billions of dollars being poured into infrastructure, it might have been an opportunity to make something of Canada's capital. But one can hear the discussion at PMO: look, Ottawa's full of fat cats and it will annoy some voters in "the regions" so do not - repeat not - pump one red cent into the nation's capital's infrastructure.

Transit rant

Only in Ottawa, the nation's capital, would a transit strike be permitted to continue - 41 days and still counting - with nobody of importance putting pressure on to resolve it.

The Mayor and the City continue to demonstrate their incompetence, determined to solve the city's budget woes on the back of the union, and calling for the Minister of Labour to force a vote on the contract that was then lost. Boy, the Mayor sure has his ear on the ground.

The union? Well, is there a recession and are they public servants? 'Nuff said.

And the Government of Canada? It has responsibility because this is an interprovincial service but is ducking it like crazy. The federal government is slow, admits Minister Baird (supported it seems by the NDP and Liberals) so we want the City and the union to solve it: is this based on evidence that the City is fast?

This is, of course, not an essential service until someone dies. All it does is move the poor (who don't vote), students (who can't vote) and average public servants (the rest driving their SUVs to work).

By the way, I don't see the Ottawa Citizen or the Ottawa Sun lauding all those public servants who are hoofing it to and from work, you know, the unsung ones who get no respect. I know one clerk who is walking an hour to and from work each day, leaving at 6:30 am and getting home about 12 hours later.

IT has written that this is a city that can't think big. The way this issue is being handled proves once and for all its just a small, public service town backwater.

Fingerprinting the public service

The Ottawa Citizen reports that the government is considering fingerprinting all public servants http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Task+force+considers+fingerprinting+credit+checks+federal+workers/1169568/story.html. This is definitely an idea whose time is come. With terrorists lurking everywhere, we need to divert critical law enforcement tasks to this one.


Should the government decide to proceed, my guess is that it would take just about forever to complete. In my experience, just getting a "Secret" clearance can take up to six months. Perhaps the government should refuse to pay the RCMP their promised salary increases (oops, already done that) and divert them to this task.

Recruiting for the public service

Ernst & Young has a Facebook group aimed at young recruits, people looking for a career with the company (http://www.facebook.com/ernstandyoungcareers). I think the public service needs to do this: the head of the PSC should open a Facebook account aimed at creating a community of young people eager to serve the Canadian public.

I'm serious. From the Clerk down, everyone is saying that we need to recruit bright young people. And does the normal snail paced recruiting system help convince them that we are a dynamic, exciting employer?

Of course, a blog could cause problems for the head of the PSC. What if someone asked her how the recruiting process in the government works? Honestly, does anyone really know how the government's hiring process works - all they know is that it doesn't.

Still, this innovation could be a step to convince young talent that the government is not completely ossified.

Branding the public sector

Ricardo Guimaraes is the founder of Thymus Branding in Brazil. He says that brands do not belong to companies but to their customers, his point being that the "value of the brand belongs to the market, and not to the company." What this means is that the branding of an organization really just amounts to what people think of it.

So. The Clerk's public service renewal plan called for 'branding' the public service to make it attractive to potential hires. A departmental committee was set up in the Canada Public Service Agency to come up with the right brand, spending hours coming up with lots of data and lots of nifty ideas. Surveys were culled to come up with answers to what Canadians thought about the public service and the government of Canada.

If Ricardo is right, this is not complex process. Just find the simple trend and focus a campaign on it.

By the way, one of the the best brands in the country is the Canada Wordmark, consistently getting high recognition and positive feeling scores.