Michael Wernick on turbulent times for Canada – and its Clerk
Michael Wernick, Canada’s outgoing Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, tells Matt Ross how the civil service is responding to an ever faster, more fractious world; maps out the big challenges ahead; and reflects on a stint in the top job that arrived unexpectedly, and ended abruptly
Ever since Michael Wernick joined the Canadian federal civil service nearly 40 years ago, the pace of life – and government – has been accelerating. “The feedback is faster; the reaction times are shorter; governments have to take decisions – politically and internally – with less time and less perfect information,” he says. “The days of long studies and rumination are gone.”
But as governments struggle to address the fall-out of rapid economic, technological and social change, recent years have seen a dangerous rise in public disillusionment. “In most countries, significant parts of the population have felt somewhat disenfranchised or alienated: they’ve felt that the political system or the economy are not responsive to them, and not helping them to move ahead,” says Wernick, who’s just stepped down after three years as Canada’s top civil servant. “There will always be dissatisfied people, but there’s a danger of reaching a boiling-over point.”
And when public anger boils over, democracy itself is in danger. In some countries, Wernick comments, we’re seeing “the rise of a more autocratic style of leadership; attacks on democratic institutions, the free press, independent courts; the suppression of political dissent.” These are “very troubling, and have taken down a number of democracies over the last few years – and put a number of the older democracies at some risk.”
Caught in controversy
In Wernick’s own country, public anger and populist autocrats have not yet derailed national politics. Canada is gearing up for federal elections on 21 October, after a four-year stint under Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau – currently polling neck and neck with the Conservative opposition. But Trudeau’s popularity has taken a knock, thanks in part to the SNC-Lavalin affair: attorney-general Jody Wilson-Raybould quit in February, alleging that people within the PM’s office – including Wernick – had leaned on her to offer a ‘deferred prosecution agreement’ to mining giant SNC-Lavalin, accused of paying bribes in Libya over a ten-year period.
Trudeau’s longstanding aide Gerald Butts subsequently quit, while President of the Treasury Board Jane Philpott resigned in sympathy with Wilson-Raybould. And in March, Wernick – who postponed his retirement five years ago to take the deputy clerk’s role – announced that he would retire, after three years in the role of Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet. As clerk, he’d been given “a specific role with an umpire’s jersey: to call out incidents of interference in the election campaign,” he explains. And his involvement in this highly political battle had attracted criticism – leading him to conclude that “it wouldn’t be tenable for me to be in that role during the campaign.”
It is not the end to his civil service career that he would have wished. But Wernick looks back on his stint on the top job with pride: “It was a very busy, activist government at a very active time in the world, and we seemed to be firing on all cylinders,” he says. “A great deal got done, and the cumulative record shows a public service that was quite capable and responsive.”
Glasnost & Perestroika
For Wernick, this responsiveness is key to addressing public dissatisfaction: the public, he says, want to “see the institutions of government providing good services, responsive to the things they and their families and communities need.” This in turn demands both an open, listening approach to policymaking and public engagement, and the pursuit of structural reforms to modernise and improve service delivery; and here, Wernick gives himself a mixed report.
“To use an imperfect metaphor, I think we did better on ‘Glasnost’ – open government, transparency, accountability – than on ‘Perestroika’: structural reform,” he says. “Future governments will, I believe, have to look at some of the structural issues in the public sector. Our human resources model is basically the one we’ve had since the 1970s. I’m very proud that I climbed 15 rungs of the ladder to the top of the public service, but I’m appalled that there were 15 rungs to climb; we should be flatter.”
On some structural issues, though, rapid progress was made during Wernick’s tenure. Chief digital officer Alex Benay, for example, forged ahead on digital standards, procurement reform, data policy, cyber security and training, while overseeing a swathe of new digital services. “There is a foundation there, and a momentum which will serve the next government very well,” says Wernick.
Delivering digital
However, Benay announced last month that he was leaving the civil service; and Wernick notes that under Trudeau, the digital agenda benefited from “air cover from a prime minister who’s very interested in the issue.” If the next government is less ready to push digital agendas, Wernick says, “it would certainly be an opportunity for some of the stodgier forces of the status quo to roll things back”.
Benay was overseeing the replacement of Canada’s dysfunctional Phoenix civil service pay system – using a fully digital, ‘Agile’ approach that, he told Global Government Forum in February, sits awkwardly with the civil service’s “industrial-age government and governance mechanism.”
Benay argued that systems intended to minimise risk ended up undermining Phoenix’s delivery – defining the project’s nature, schedule and budget too early in the process, for example. But Wernick warns that Phoenix’s failure may – ironically – lead officials to fall back on old, counter-productive habits: “There’s great fear of a big IT cock-up,” he comments. “We may see a return to a bit of risk-aversion for a while, if you don’t have the kind of champions we’ve had over the last while.”
Delivering on delivery
Another structural reform involved the introduction of a central Delivery Unit, overseeing a departmental performance management system designed to keep civil servants and ministers focused on a set of key priorities and metrics. This “deliverology experiment” was, says Wernick, “about being much more explicit about what you intend to achieve as a government, and transparent about reporting progress.” And this transparency does, of course, invite observers to mark the government’s scorecard: the National Post reported that Trudeau had achieved about half of his goals, and completely missed about 10%.
The system’s fate, Wernick suggests, will depend in part on whether its published results help or hinder Trudeau in the election campaign. But meanwhile, he believes it’s helped departments to stay focused on implementation and effectiveness: “I think they’ve learned – and this is I suspect a permanent gain – that you’re not done when the announcement is made; that it takes a lot of persistence and effort to make sure that initiatives are, three or four years later, doing something close to what you would have hoped for.”
For the system to survive, “the government that we elect in October will have to show some interest,” he concludes. “If they’re going to govern one day at a time, responding to media and social media cycles, then the public service will adapt to that. If they take a longer view of what they’re trying to accomplish, more of the momentum will carry on into the next mandate.”
Wernick is also proud of his work to open up senior appointments to professionals from outside central government – bolstering diversity and bringing in specialist skills. But he notes a clear difference between the experience of those hired from provincial governments, and those brought in from business, academia and non-governmental organisations. The provincial officials, who are “familiar with the basic software of ministers and parliamentary committees,” have largely “done extremely well in the federal system.” Appointments made from outside the public sector, on the other hand, “rarely work out well as long-term propositions, but they do often bring in a certain energy and expertise: people come in, make a contribution, then go back to their careers.”
Future challenges
Looking ahead, Wernick points to much bigger changes that he believes will be required. The civil service’s ‘Blueprint 2020’ reform strategy is giving way to a ‘Beyond 2020’ agenda, built around the idea of an “agile, inclusive and equipped” workforce. “We want a more engaged and participatory public service that will help shape its own solutions,” he comments. “A more dynamic, self-learning, self-correcting organisation where people take charge of their own workplaces.”
But to get there, he says, major reforms will be required to aspects of the federal government’s operations – particularly in staffing and procurement, “the two areas that are the most encrusted and change-resistant and sclerotic and bureaucratic.” On the staffing side, it’s “time to take a look” at civil service remuneration – adopting a “total compensation philosophy” that could boost salaries while reducing pensions, and benchmarking the civil service’s offer against those of other employers. “We underpay senior leadership; we may overpay some of the lower tiers of the public service,” he says. But given the complexities around issues such as pension portability and variable housing costs, any changes would require “very thorough examination.”
What’s more, he says, “the next government needs to tackle security of job tenure. It is excruciatingly difficult to fire anyone in the public service.” Wernick has done a lot of work on mental health in the workplace, and worries about “people with mental health issues being treated as performance issues.” But employers must be “able to deal with poor performers and bad behaviour more effectively: you get improvement across the service when people have to worry a little bit about being fired.” Changes would be “fiercely resisted”, he notes, but the issue lies “at the core of some of the structural reforms” that he sees as essential to progress.
Those structural reforms will need money, Wernick adds – and he makes a plea for government to invest in “our internal service platforms: financial management, HR management, the pay system, information management and storage systems. The plumbing and wiring of the public service is very difficult to get attention and investment for, and that’s why we’ve had terrible rust-out problems”.
Change at the top
These agendas, though, will rest with Wernick’s successor Ian Shugart: a highly-experienced official who’s run three departments since 2008. In appointing him, Justin Trudeau may have had half an eye on Shugart’s ability to weather a transition to a Conservative government in October: before joining the civil service in 1984, Shugart was policy director to the head of the Progressive Conservatives – leader of the Opposition to a government run by Trudeau’s own father, Pierre. “Prior to 2006, there was a channel through which people who had worked in political offices for ministers or other politicians could move into public service jobs relatively easily,” explains Wernick. “Some of our most distinguished public servants have that on their resumé.”
Asked whether he has any regrets about the way he’s leaving office, Wernick replies that he wouldn’t use that word: “I’m comfortable that I did my job to the best of my ability, with the constraints and the information that I had at the time.” And does the SNC-Lavalin case reveal weaknesses in the government’s systems? The government has sought advice on the role of the attorney-general, he says, but “none of the contacts between the company and the government went unrecorded. The director of public prosecutions said publicly that she and her organisation have never experienced political interference in any case, so the independence of the prosecution service was fully intact. Parliamentary committees did their work with great gusto. In many ways the institutional framework was strained and tested, but held very well.”
Wernick is currently in a “time out” – but some time after the election, he’ll start considering his next move. “I’ve just turned 62, so I think I’ve got a few miles left,” he says. “I’m very interested in governance and public service reform issues. I’ve always had a personal commitment and interest in indigenous issues, and the quest for reconciliation and progress for indigenous people. And I’m fascinated by the emerging world of digital government, artificial intelligence and so on. There are always new things to learn!”
In some ways, the last few years have been an unexpected bonus for Michael Wernick. In 2014, after eight years running the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, he was contemplating early retirement – but then he was offered the deputy clerk’s role, followed in 2016 by the top job. “I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity,” he says: the SNC-Lavalin affair may have curtailed his period as clerk, but it hasn’t soured it.
“I’ve practiced a certain trade for more than 38 years, and to reach the very pinnacle of one’s trade in one of the best public services in the world is a great source of pride,” he concludes. “I wouldn’t have traded the last three years for anything.”
You may also wish to read our previous interview with Michael Wernick, conducted in October 2016 shortly after he became Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet.
Global Government Forum: five thoughts for better government
Michael Wernick on learning from overseas
To help our readers get the best out of Global Government Forum, we ask interviewees five standard questions – four seeking practical advice and opinions, and one to reveal something a little more personal. This is an edited version of Michael Wernick’s answers – click below to hear his full answers in a GGF audio recording.
Since our last interview, have you come across any ideas from abroad that you have found helpful?
“Some of the work that was done on digital government in some of the smaller states like Estonia and Singapore was quite intriguing. The challenge in Canada will be how to scale it up to a bigger country, and one that has provinces, in the world of service delivery. Some of the work in Australia on integration of benefit systems is well ahead of what we have done in Canada. And work that was done in a number of public services on improving access for persons with disabilities to employment in the public service are things that we’re happy to try and emulate.”
And are there any recent Canadian projects or innovations that you think might be valuable to your peers overseas?
“I would like to think that there are things that we have done that are of interest. I commend to people my spring report to the prime minister on the state of the public service and the ‘Beyond 2020’ Agenda that we articulated around agile, inclusive and equipped – which is a rubric for a number of initiatives that are perhaps of interest. I’m proud of the work we did on workplace issues such as mental health and harassment, and discrimination, and some of the initiatives we’ve done to create a more open dialogue around those and to make some progress in making a better workplace for people. And some of the work that was done very recently in digital services I think also could be of interest.”
What are the biggest challenges facing Canada’s federal civil service today?
“Like most public services, the challenge that’s cutting across so many others is the shortening of time horizons: the need to be agile and responsive, to make decisions more quickly with less perfect information. So a certain degree of agility; we need to reach out and include as many voices as possible, but the pressures of time I think are going to become more inexorable on decision makers.”
And are there any particular major global challenges that you think face all major democracies?
“It’s striking to me how much the world has been shaken up since we spoke three years ago, and how much issues from outside the country come in and intrude upon your economy, your society, your political life and so on. We seem to be living in turbulent times. There are many topics in there, they’re probably going to last for a number of years, and so the ability for a country like Canada to adapt and respond and try to steer ahead in choppy waters is the overwhelming challenge in the next few years.”
What book have you enjoyed recently?
“I’m doing my best to keep up with the emergent world of technology, artificial intelligence and so on. I found a book called ‘Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence’, by a group at the University of Toronto headed by Avi Goldfarb, to be very helpful: it was a non-technical, non-jargon-filled book with some issues around artificial intelligence.”
About Matt Ross
Matt is a journalist and editor specialising in public services, policymaking, government and management. He was the editor of trade title Civil Service World from 2008 to 2014, serving an audience of senior UK officials; and the features editor of weekly news magazine Regeneration & Renewal between 2002 and 2008, covering urban regeneration, economic growth and community development. He has also been a motoring and travel journalist, and now combines his role as editorial director of Global Government Forum with writing for other publications including The Guardian and Planning magazine.
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