Executive Briefs
Organization & People Performance (November 2007) - What does the future hold for the public service in Canada? What are the factors that will impact the performance of the governmental organization and by extension the performance of public servants in the next decade or two?
There are a number of significant forces at play in the world, and specifically in the world of government in Canada, that will impact the ability for governments to meet the expectations of citizens. Some of these forces will impact the ability of governments to recruit new talent into the service, while other forces, specific to recent experiences in Canada will impact governments’ ability to respond innovatively to the issues that face society. Click here for the full text
Interaction of Risk & Control (September 2007) - This paper discusses the interaction between risk and control in public administration/management and some of the issues that public servants face in trying to find the “right” balance between the two. Click here for the full Text
Commissions of Inquiry in Canada (September 2006) - On May 3, 2006, the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) and the University of Ottawa jointly organized a roundtable of leading Canadian academics in the field of public policy and public administration to consider some issues relating to the use and functioning of commissions of inquiry. The event was hosted by the Association of Public Service Executives(APEX). The immediate context for the roundtable was the tabling of the second and final report of the Gomery commission and the public discussion it provoked.
The objective of the roundtable was to draw lessons about the proper and effective use of commissions of inquiry as a vehicle of public policy based on the experiences of government inquiries at both the federal and provincial levels of government. The recommendations that emerged are aimed both at process and substance issues. Click here for the full Text
Top Ten Issues in Public Administration Scholarship: An International Survey (August 2006) - What do scholars consider to be areas deserving of inquiry in the broad field of public sector
management and administration? In order to identify the current state of the professional interest, forty eight scholarly journals from around the world were identified and their contents of the last two years were analyzed.
The results of this study provides grounds to suspect that, as firmly rooted as the agenda of the New Public Management (NPM) has become, it is also in the process of being reworked from within. Click here for the full Text
“Working with Political Staff at Queen’s Park: Trends, Outlooks, Opportunities” (June 2006) - Over the past several years, members of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada have argued that one of the most important issues facing public sector executives has been the emerging role and responsibilities of ministerial staff. This area has also been the object of many explorations, notably in Australia and in the United Kingdom. The second and final report of Justice Gomery also devoted a study on this topic, as well as two key recommendations.
Responding to this request, IPAC convened a roundtable discussion in Toronto on February 14th, 2006. The group brought together twenty Queen’s Park veterans: half drawn from the ranks of Deputy Ministers; the other half from former ministerial advisors. The participants had served as either ministerial staff and senior officials in each government from Premiers Peterson to McGuinty, with one DM going as far back as the Robarts era.
The meeting explored the evolving roles and responsibilities of ministerial advisors from both the public service and the governing party perspective over the past thirty years. The meeting took place two weeks after Justice Gomery submitted his final report on the Government of Canada’s Sponsorship Program. Click here for the full Text
IPAC Events
