Federal bureaucrats need to shift back to front-line services, N.B. researcher says

The federal public service is in need of significant reform, according to the latest book by Donald Savoie, a New Brunswick public administration and economic development researcher.

In Speaking Truth to Canadians About their Public Service, Savoie argues that too much bureaucracy has built up in Ottawa and more federal jobs should shift back to front-line services in local and regional offices.

"We've downgraded the point of service to a great extent," said Savoie, who runs a research institute that bears his name at the University of Moncton.

In the mid 1970s, 70 to 73 per cent of federal public servants worked in local and regional offices, said Savoie. Today, nearly half of them are in Ottawa. 

Thirty years ago, there were 2,600 senior executives. Today, there are 9,500, he said. Most of them work in Ottawa providing policy advice.

"We've added so many oversight bodies," he said. "In terms of ministerial offices, not that long ago there were three or four staffers. Now it's up to 25... asking questions, poking, trying to have some influence.

"We've built up Ottawa to protect or to manage the blame game."

It's time to rethink the balance, said Savoie. 

Politicians and the public need to consider what they want from their federal public service, he said.

"We can make it better,"  said Savoie, who considers himself a friend of the public sector..

"They look after borders. They look after transfer payments. They look after a whole slew of programs."

'We've added 100,000 positions'

But he said there needs to be more importance attached to front-line service delivery. When passport applications ran into a backlog during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, the civil service should have been able to see that coming and to act preemptively, he said.

And while public servants are supposed to be responsible for the government of the day in a non-partisan fashion, said Savoie, more of them are reporting to, and are responsible to ministers.

The civil service bears some of the responsibility for its own growth, said Savoie, but he mostly blames the political system and its elected leaders.

Pointing to a previous book of his called Governing from the Centre, which was published in 1999, Savoie said fewer people today would deny its assertion that the prime minister and the prime minister's office have an incredible amount of power.

"We've added 100,000 positions. That's not just the doing of politicians," he said. "But ultimately the prime minister and ministers are responsible and accountable."