Mind boggling number from
@DanEbs’s post on public sector reform in 🇨🇦:
0.03% involuntary attrition.
That’s 20x lower than the private sector. There is zero chance of having a high-performing culture with near zero involuntary attrition.
The federal workforce has grown to an all-time high while delivering diminishing results. Since 2008, Canadian public sector productivity has flatlined, despite growing the number of workers. Citizen satisfaction is at an all-time low with only 16% of people saying they receive good value from government services.
This is not only inefficient, it is a discredit to the actual talented, hardworking members of our public sector.
We can do better. It is possible to have better services at lower costs.
In fact, we did it before. In 1993, facing a large deficit and ballooning debt, the Liberal government under Jean Chretien pushed to restore fiscal discipline. Every government service was subjected to rigorous evaluation based on "six tests" to determine if the service was necessary and how it could be delivered more efficiently.
The result? Federal spending as a share of GDP fell from 22% to 17% and the budget was balanced in just 3 years.
Let's take a similar approach and reform our public services to create a leaner, more accountable and results-driven civil service:
- Set ambitious targets: Introduce a performance and results system to set and cascade clear, ambitious, aligned, and measurable targets for service levels and costs in all departments.
- Improve Accountability: Currently, only executives are judged based on service performance, and >97% meet their expectations and are given their full bonuses or more. Enhance the current performance system to include all civil service employees.
- Review Our Services: Create a tough review process to ask if a program serves the necessary public interest, was affordable, and fits the federal mandate. If the answer is no, eliminate the program.
- Reset to a New Baseline: Rapidly return to a reasonable size for the civil service through a combination of a hiring freeze, buyouts, early retirement, and transition support to encourage voluntary departures following the approach that Jean Chrétien used in the 1990s.
- Streamline Dismissals: Amend the Financial Administration Act to allow termination after two consecutive quarters of unsatisfactory performance.
By rewarding performance, cutting waste, and increasing accountability, taxpayers will save billions, businesses will thrive under a more responsive system, and we will develop a government that prizes excellence and works for Canadians.