Donald Savoie: Depoliticizing the public service is 'urgent'

The deterioration of New Brunswick’s public service is “quite serious” and it is “very urgent” that steps are taken to address its shortcomings, according to one of Canada’s leading public administration experts.

Donald Savoie, the Canada research chair in public administration and governance, said former premiers, such as Louis J. Robichaud and Richard Hatfield, fostered a strong public service.

The erosion of the public service is not unique to New Brunswick, but it is leaving the province in a very bad situation.

 “We, in New Brunswick have an urgent problem, it starts with our fiscal situation. It starts with the state of the public service,” he said.

“I do not think that the public service in New Brunswick is anywhere what it was 30, 40 years ago. … We’ve lost that, so I would not argue for a moment that we have pound for pound the best public service in Canada. We do not. So how urgent, it is very urgent that we fix that problem.”

The public administration expert said a professional civil service needs to be able to offer policy views to politicians, which may be uncomfortable at times.

“If we have lost the ability of the civil service to speak truth to power, if the civil service can no longer tell politicians the common interest is this, if you do that, you are going to hurt the public interest of New Brunswick, if you don’t do this you are going to hurt the broader public interest, we are taking a step backwards,” he said.

Savoie’s comments come a day after Jeff Patch, a retired public servant, also expressed concerns about the politicization of the bureaucracy.

Patch, who is now retired and works as a college instructor, said there is a decline in the notion of a neutral public servant and bureaucrats are now more willing to bend to the wishes of their political masters.

More evidence of the politicization of the public service was on display in the days after the Liberals won power as six senior civil servants, who were closely associated with the Progressive Conservatives, received severance packages to leave their jobs.

There is an ongoing question over the employment future of Margaret-Ann Blaney, the president and chief executive officer of Efficiency New Brunswick, and Robert MacLeod, the president of Invest NB.

Premier Brian Gallant said he had been told by David Alward that those high-profile Tories would also be dealt with in the same manner as the other Tory-aligned deputy ministers.

But both Blaney and MacLeod are still employed by taxpayers.

The former Liberal government bought out five deputy ministers after Shawn Graham lost the 2010 election.

In the last four years, 13 people in deputy minister-level positions have been forced out because of their political affiliation.

Savoie said it is up premiers and prime ministers to end this revolving door between political parties and the civil service.

“We need to rediscover the importance of politicians coming to office, certainly with their views … with a deep appreciation that they need to rely on the public service for non-partisan, professional policy advice,” Savoie said.

“Google searches and the latest public opinion poll can’t compare to the value of senior civil servants [providing] policy advice based on evidence.”