Bulking up the Privy Council Office isn’t the solution to what ails the public service

FILE: The Office’s present location in the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council building at 80 Wellington Street in Ottawa. (Photo By Gilles Y. Hamel/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

By Policy Options

(Version française disponible ici)

The next federal government we elect, whenever that happens, will have its hands full as Canada struggles with a stubbornly sluggish economy while global conflicts and trade disputes draw precious time and attention. Housing, climate, immigration, reconciliation, disruptions caused by AI – the list is a long one.

By 2026 Quebec separatism may return to the agenda, drawing foreign interference like a magnet.

To deal with all of this, the Prime Minister, whoever it is, will need to pay attention to the capabilities, performance and productivity of the public service and will need a strong department close at hand.  But it would be a mistake to bulk up the Privy Council Office with a lot of new bespoke functions, as has happened in the past.

Over the years (during which I have had the privilege of serving in multiple roles under several prime ministers), the PCO has gone through a lot of shape shifting but its enduring core functions are the ones that support cabinet deliberation and the unique roles of the prime minister. These include relations with premiers and other international leaders. PCO also keeps the flow of executive orders and appointments moving.

There are also teams dedicated to national security and intelligence, and to provide advisory support on economic and fiscal matters in crafting federal budgets in concert with the Department of Finance.

The potential scope for PCO is as wide as the ultimate responsibilities of the country’s top leadership. As such, it is often tempting for a prime minister to add special purpose units to PCO to signal that something is a priority and needs an extra dose of direction from the top.

Over time, the specific functions of teams added or removed from the PCO have always reflected the needs of prime ministers and of the times in which they governed.

Some recent such add-ons include:

• Canada-US relations; Cities; Indigenous issues; and the first version of a national science adviser (Paul Martin)
• An Afghanistan task force; a unit on Canada-US regulatory harmonization; a special adviser on human smuggling and illegal migration (Stephen Harper)
• PM’s youth council; a special adviser on LGBTQ2 issues; a results and delivery unit (Justin Trudeau)

My advice: the next prime minister should resist adding bespoke units to the PCO as a form of political signaling and be ruthless in winding them up.

Before you go there, start by making sure the enduring core functions at the PCO are in good shape. Stick to the core role of supporting cabinet. Make sure the PCO is agile and responsive to emerging issues. Use short term task teams and committees of ministers with chairs that are empowered to get results.

Complementary centres of power

It would be a mistake to view the PCO as a kind of chief operating officer reporting to the prime minister, as was argued in a recent op-ed.

The Privy Council Office does not possess a command-and-control role.

The influence of the clerk, who leads the PCO, comes not from executive authority but from having close proximity to the prime minister.  Ministers and senior officials worry what the clerk is thinking and advising – regarding policy but also regarding their performance and career options. They view the clerk as someone who can address issues, remove obstacles, iron out frictions with their departments or help work through disagreements with cabinet colleagues.

The “hard power” comes from the role the clerk has in cabinet shuffles and the appointment of senior personnel. It is advice from the clerk that drives the movement of deputy ministers and their annual performance pay.

Also, by choosing one or two common priorities for the whole public service each year – the “clerk’s priorities” – there is also significant sway over the public service.

However, the real authority and impact on management and delivery by the federal public service is vested by legislation in the Treasury Board Secretariat.

The Treasury Board Secretariat is the unavoidable gatekeeper for the other 300-plus federal government entities who need approval for corporate plans, funding submissions, reorganizations and other administrative decisions. It is the “centre” from which policies, regulations and guidelines emanate to other organizations regarding financial management, human resources, information technology, procurement, service delivery, security and many other aspects of “how” the public service operates.

It issued guidance on the use of artificial intelligence.

Moreover, the Treasury Board is the employer for most federal public servants. It handles collective bargaining on behalf of almost all departments and determines the rules of the game for classification and staffing. It was the organization that determined the evolving and controversial models for hybrid work for civil servants.

Streamlined decision-making

The next government would be advised to give serious attention to the effectiveness and productivity of the public service.  But the way to get there isn’t by bulking up PCO. This can be best achieved by reinforcing the role of the Treasury Board instead. There is no road to serious public service reform that does not pass through the Treasury Board.

Better results could be achieved in several ways, including:

• Renaming and rebranding the Treasury Board as Management and Implementation Board to clearly convey the breadth and depth of its role.
• Add “Chief Operating Officer of the Government of Canada” to the title of both the minister and deputy minister.
• Issue the annual report on the public service from the Management and Implementation Board Minister rather than the clerk of the PCO.
• Create a permanent advisory council on the public service and have it report to the Management and Implementation Board minister, who would be obliged to publish its reports.
• Fund research and consultations with the mandate to generate a continuous supply chain of ideas and input on how to make the federal public service more effective and productive.
• Endow the Management and Implementation Board with greater authority to direct other departments and agencies, including the power to pause or terminate procurements and technology projects that have gone off the rails.

These changes would add clarity, accountability and traction to a sometimes-unwieldy management system overseeing the public service. Most importantly, it would raise the capabilities and effectiveness of the public service while freeing up the clerk of the Privy Council Office to focus on strategy, priorities and policy coherence, and guide appointments of senior leadership fit for the emerging challenges of the late 2020s.

This article first appeared on Policy Options and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.