Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, March 09, 2012

Use cuts to remake public service: committee

Senior bureaucrats should use the Conservatives' spending cuts and push for smaller government to "drive transformation" in their departments and change how the public service works, manages its people and serves Canadians, says the prime minister's advisory committee on the public service.

David Emerson, the cochair of the advisory committee, said the downsizing provides an ideal opportunity for the public service to remake itself with a new "business model" for the 21st century. He said the biggest challenge for the government is "staying focused" on long-term goals.

"It will be a smaller public service, more technology-enabled, and will have people that are more multi-skilled and much more international in their thinking, skills and capacity," said Emerson.

The government and senior bureaucracy have been pitching a similar message of "transformation" to dress up the reductions as employees wait to find out where the axe will fall when the Conservatives announce the reductions of their deficit-reduction action plan in the March 29th budget.

The report, titled Moving Ahead: Public Service Renewal in a Time of Change, is the committee's sixth since it was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. It is chaired by Paul Tellier, Canada's top bureaucrat under Brian Mulroney and Emerson, a former Liberal and later Conservative cabinet minister.

The report said the departments' review of their programs and operations to find savings of five per cent and 10 per cent was "a driver for transformation" and not an "obligation to deliver savings." It said many deputy ministers used the review to rethink their operations.

"Current provisions of workforce adjustment agreements will make a particular challenge. Departures must be managed in a way that does not undermine the longer-term capacities of departments," it said.

But Emerson said departments should be able to absorb the cuts and jobs losses with little "pain" and disruption to their employees if managed properly.

He said the cuts should be easily handled with attrition and the workforce adjustment provisions. He said departments should be open to outsourcing some of its work and more efforts should be made to beef up productivity, performance and attendance of some workers.

"I don't think the public service will feel that much pain if this is managed well," he said. "There is a whole combination of ways they can use to contribute to a smooth and relatively painless transition."

He said the big risk in downsizing is that the best people leave, especially if buyout and retirement packages are offered. He said departments have to carefully select who goes and who stays to make sure they have the talent they need for a "transformed" public service.

Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Kathryn May

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