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Ever since Brian Mulroney promised “pink underpants and a pair of running shoes” to any “bureaucrat” who opposed civil service reform, the bureaucracy has become an easy and defenseless target for seeking politicians. points with the electorate.

But even if Canada’s federal public service is lacking, this time the bureaucracy is not to blame.

Generally, Canadians don’t hear much about public servants, despite the essential role they play in our democracy. In an effort to preserve their impartiality, officials stay on the sidelines and refrain from publicly defending themselves against attacks deemed too big, too complex, too expensive, too slow, too insensitive and irresponsible.

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These commonly heard criticisms, however, are not the reason why the federal public service is currently failing Canadians. This is a betrayal of Canadians because senior officials are too exhausted to speak truth to power.

Don’t laugh; the evidence abounds.

In a democracy, the essential role played by bureaucrats is to offer politicians their best policy advice, in a frank and fearless manner. As stated in their Code of Values ​​and Ethicscivil servants are required to “(provide) decision-makers with all the information, analysis and advice they require, always striving to be open, frank and impartial”.

However, recently, the desire of civil servants to fearlessly advise governments has disappeared. Look no further than the Phoenix payroll system. In his report on the problems underpinning Phoenix, the late Auditor General Michael Ferguson expressed dismay at a public service whose “capacity to convey hard truths has been eroded.”

The aversion of public officials to giving frank and courageous advice is not only worrying but, from a historical perspective, surprising. Administrative reforms introduced under the government of Prime Minister Robert Borden (1911-1920) attempted to insulate the careers of civil servants from electoral and political considerations through two major changes: merit-based recruitment and permanent positions. A hundred years later, Canadian bureaucracy is still defined this way.

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In the 21st century, however, the rise of social media has led politicians to feel a constant need to respond, and respond quickly, to the most recent issues that have attracted attention online. In his book Governing Canadaformer Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick warns aspiring political ministers that “burnout poses a significant risk for any minister…fatigue will cause you to become irritable and reactive.” The same goes for civil servants. Not only has the volume of requests emanating from the online political realm saturated the Canadian public service, but efforts to respond to the onslaught of ostensibly “urgent” requests have left public servants overburdened and exhausted, weakening their ability to develop and to express themselves with frankness and boldness. advice.

For example, according to the 2022 Public Service Employee Survey, only 28 percent of senior civil service executives – those who work closest to political ministers – said they could “always” or “almost always” accomplish their workload during normal working hours, unlike 74 percent of non-managerial civil servants. Similarly, 37 percent of managerial civil servants reported “high” or “very high” levels of work-related stress, compared to 19 percent of non-managerial workers.

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In trying to respond to the constant stream of demands from the political executive, senior officials no longer have the time, space, or energy to provide frank and courageous advice on fundamental policy issues. They are too busy reacting to political demands.

In the current era of e-governance, the Canadian public service work environment has been disrupted by essentially party-political concerns. Governments, obsessed with protecting their image in an online world filled with endless “scandals” and “outrages,” are using up much of the public service’s bandwidth to do so. The civil service itself is not responsible for this current failure in governance.

Incidentally, Brian Mulroney (1984-1993) introduced significant administrative reforms, but former officials say he also learned to respect bureaucracy; not only encourage public servants to develop and provide their best policy analyses, but also take the time to listen to them.

Mulroney, of course, did not govern in an era of online political pressure; but right now, Canada’s federal public servants are doing it – and it’s exhausting.

Christopher A. Cooper is an associate professor of public management at the University of Ottawa and author of At the pleasure of the Crown: the politics of bureaucratic appointments (UBC Press).

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