The snakes and ladders of accountability: Contradictions between contracting and collaboration for Canada's voluntary sector

Abstract: Although governing in Canada is in transition towards a model of horizontal “governance” that emphasizes collaboration with a variety of non‐governmental actors, the contracting culture and its associated accountability regime remain a legacy of “new public management.” As part of this transition, however, contracting is being used not only as a means to control performance but also as a governance tool to guide the development of more collaborative relationships between government as a whole and entire sectors. In its relationship with the voluntary sector, the Government of Canada is caught in these contradictory trends ‐ between the control of contracting and the collaboration inherent in a governance contract. This article first examines the impact on voluntary organizations of the very stringent federal rneasures over contribution agreements that were brought in as a reaction to crisis in 2000. The effects are found to be significant and overwhelmingly negative, imposing direct financial costs on voluntary organizations and stifling innovation. The authors then consider whether the implementation of the Accord Between the Government of Canada and the Voluntary Sector and its Code of Good Practice on Funding might mitigate the negative effects of these accountability measures. Sommaire: S'il est vrai que le Canada s'oriente vers un modèle de « gouvemance horizontale « privilégiant la collaboration avec différents acteurs non‐gouvernementaux, la culture de marchés (contrats) et le régime d'imputabilité qui I'accompagne n'en demeurent pas moins un legs de la nouvelle gestion publique. Toutefois, dans le cadre de cette transition, les marchés (contrats), en plus de servir de moyen de contrôler le rendement, sont aussi un outil de gouvernance pour accroître la collaboration entre le gouvernement dam son ensemble et des secteurs tout entiers. Dam sa relation avec le secteur bénévole, le gowernement du Canada est pris dans ces tendances contradictoires ‐ entre le contrôle des marchés (contrats) et la collabordtion inhérente à un contrat de gouvernance. L'article se penche en premier sur l'incidence pour les organismes bénévoles des mesures contraignantes imposées par le gouvernement fédéral relativement aux ententes de contribution introduites pour fairc face a la crise qui a sévi en 2000. Ces impacts sont à la fois considérables et des plus négatifs, imposant des frais de financement directs aux organismes bénévoles et suffoquant l'innovation. Les auteurs cherchent ensuite a déterminer si la mise en application de l'accord passé entre le gouvernement du Canada et le secteur bénévole et son Code de boMes pratiques de financement pourraient atténuer certains effets négatifs de ces mesures d'imputabilité.     

Innovation diffusion and networking: Canada's evolving approach to lobbying regulation

Lobby legislation and regulation in Canada are relatively new. The federal government was the first to enact lobby legislation in 1989, requiring only the most basic information. Eight provinces have since proclaimed lobby legislation and another has legislation pending. This article explores whether there was a common trajectory for lobby regulations and identifies the factors fostering similarity and differentiation. Using diffusion theory and the theory of institutional development, we attempt to explain the variation between jurisdictions in adopting particular democratic and ethical tools and approaches. We conclude that a particular and unique Canadian approach to lobby legislation benefitted from the creation of a network of federal and provincial officials across the country.     

Today's leaders: Career trends of Canada's private- and public-sector executives

Abstract: Today, a great deal of attention is focused on the need to change the management of the public service in order to improve customer service and increase efficiency. In many cases, unfavourable comparisons are made to the private sector. But little comparative analysis has actually been undertaken with reference to the career profiles of senior managers in Canada's public and private sectors. The Public Management Research Centre undertook a study comparing the backgrounds and management experiences of Canada's most senior executives in the public and private sectors. Information was gathered from seventy current heads of federal departments and agencies (deputy ministers - dms ) and from sixty-three chief executive officers (ceos ) of private companies of comparable size and importance. The results of this study, published in a document entitled Today's Leaders, indicate that it is likely that the top job in public-sector organizations will never be identical to that in the private sector. However, if improving the management of the public sector means adopting some elements of private-sector management techniques (e.g., alternative service delivery, increased customer service, greater attention to cost recovery and bottom-line), the thrust for these changes must come from senior management. In addition, current criteria for recruitment, development and promotion of future public-sector leaders must be re-evaluated. Sommaire: Le Centre de recherche en gestion dans le secteur public a effectué une étude comparant l'historique personnel et l'expérience de gestion des plus hauts cadres des secteurs public et privé au Canada. Les renseignements ont été recueillis auprès de 70 chefs titulaires de ministères et d'organismes fédéraux (sous-ministres) et de 63 présidents-directeurs généraux (pdg ) de compagnies privées d'envergure comparable. Publiés dans un document intituléLeaders d'aujourd'hui, les résultats de l'étude révèlent que le poste suprême des organismes publics ne sera probablement jamais identique à celui des organismes privés. D'autre part, s'il s'agit d'améliorer la gestion du secteur public en adoptant certains éléments de gestion du secteur privé (modes-alternatif de prestation de servies, meilleur service à la clientèle, recouvre-ment des coûts et rentabilité), ce sont les cadres supérieurs qui doivent en prendre l'initiative. Par ailleurs, il faut réévaluer les critères actuels de recrutement, de développement et de promotion des futurs du chefs de file secteur public.     

Comparing innovation strategies: Canada's Ocean Supercluster and Europe's Smart Specialisation initiatives

The Global Innovation Clusters’ Initiative (GIC) is an innovation program launched in Canada. This article aims to describe the policy, in particular its key similarities and differences with the Europe's Smart Specialisation (S3) policy initiative, and critically explore the logic behind its inception. The article reveals that although policy implementation practices are bespoke and context-specific, the need to increase coordination between different levels and sectors of policy making is acknowledged to be important for achieving both innovation and local economic development objectives.     

The impact and role of officers of Parliament: Canada's conflict of interest and ethics commissioner

Officers of Parliament play a vital role in providing parliamentarians with access to critical information and resources that allow them to hold the government of the day to account. Critics have argued officers have exceeded their mandates and even threaten to supplant the opposition. Canada's Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner (CIEC) holds a unique mandate, given that her primary focus concerns the behaviour of public office holders. This article draws on a comprehensive examination of the commissioner's reports and recommendations, and a content analysis of committee appearances to analyze and understand the impact and role of the CIEC. In contrast to the portrayal of other officers in the extant literature, we find that the office of the CIEC is constrained in its mandate and its impact limited by the nature and extent of its relationship with Parliament.     

Assessing policy capacity in Canada's public services: Perspectives of deputy and assistant deputy ministers

Abstract: The state of policy capacity within Canada's various levels of government has for some time been the subject of discussion both within the public services themselves and among the academic research community. Drawing on the results of a 2006 survey of deputy and assistant deputy ministers working in Canada's federal, ten provincial and three territorial governments, this article presents assessments made by the most senior leadership. The survey results show that ninety per cent of deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers agree that policy capacity has changed but that the change is not uni‐directional. Both improvements and decline in policy capacity were observed, although assessments of decline were somewhat more pronounced. Moreover, improvements in policy capacity were found to be associated with a reduced focus on direct service delivery, a greater concern with long‐term planning, and the presence of a political leadership interested in innovation. Conversely, declining policy capacity was found to be linked to centralization of power, the loss of institutional memory, and “churning” within the ranks of the executive leadership. Additionally, level of government was also observed to be linked with change in policy capacity, with provincial deputies reflecting more negatively on policy capacity decline in their government than deputies at other levels.     

“Man plans,God laughs”: Canada's national strategy for protecting critical infrastructure

Critical Infrastructure Protection seeks to enhance the physical and cyber‐security of key public and private assets and mitigate the effects of natural disasters, industrial accidents and terrorist attacks. In 2009, several Canadian governments published the National Strategy and Action Plan for Critical Infrastructure (NS&AP), a framework for governments and the owners and operators of critical infrastructure – largely in the private sector – to collaborate on the security and increased resiliency of Canada's critical assets. Drawing on the social science risk literature, audits, and a three‐year research and education project, this article argues that the strategy of relationship building, collaborative risk management and information sharing is under‐developed and limited by market competition, incompatible institutional cultures, and legal, logistical and political constraints. The NS&AP should better delineate risks and identify how governments can work with industry, and acknowledge the paradox between trust and transparency, the role of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprise, and how risk management processes can vary.     

Canada's GBA+ framework in a (post)pandemic world: Issues,tensions and paths forward

This article traces the theoretical foundations, evolution, and limitations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), which is the Government of Canada's primary framework for attending to diversity and inclusion in public policy. We argue that GBA+ is, in its current form, inadequate to guide ambitious and transformative policy in the post-pandemic years given four interlocking issues: (1) a weak integration of intersectionality; (2) insufficient attention to the power structures and socio-political context undergirding social relations and policymaking; (3) an instrumental understanding of policy; and (4) a misreading of identity. Drawing on feminist, intersectional and post-structuralist methods, we adjust the GBA+ framework with the aim of addressing the conceptual shortcomings identified in our analysis. Ultimately, we demonstrate how a more explicit engagement with notions of intersectionality, power and policy's instrumental and productive aspects can enrich the ways we think about public policy as both a mechanism and a venue for transformative change.     

The limits of learning: Policy evaluation and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

This article reviews recent efforts by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) to measure and evaluate the success of its policies. It argues that these efforts have been inhibited by changes in the ministry's political context and the inherent complexity of the issues that innovation policies seek to address. The innovation strategy pursued by the ministry incorporates an element of mediated causality in its program logic, which complicates efforts to determine policy outcomes. When compounded by a changing normative context for judging success, this inherent complexity makes it very difficult to accurately determine and learn from the MRI's policy outcomes. The article concludes by suggesting a preliminary process of inquiry that might address some of these difficulties.     

高等教育适龄人口数量与需求变化及其影响

生源是高等学校存在与发展的前提和基础,对高等教育的影响至关重要.根据全国小学入学人数的变化趋势初步估计,从2009年开始,全国高等教育适龄人口总数开始大幅下降;与此同时,适量生源的高等教育需求也正在发生很大变化.高等教育适龄人口数量与生源需求的变化将成为高等教育深层次改革的强劲动力,必将广泛而深刻地影响我国高等教育未来的改革和发展.     

Alternatives to NIMBY gridlock: voluntary approaches to radioactive waste facility siting in Canada and the United States

Abstract: Neither Canada nor the United States has sited a new radioactive waste management facility in more than two decades, despite the continuous generation of new waste and the paucity of reliable disposal capacity. Both nations have stirred up considerable political controversy in attempting to site such facilities, with aggressive local collective action consistently blocking proposals. Building on provincial experience in gaining public support for hazardous waste facility siting tlirough a voluntary, comprehensive process, both Ontario and Nebraska Show signs of devi?ting from the classic Not-in-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) response for low-level radioactive waste. Through a variation of the process used successfully in Alberta and Manitoba for hazardous waste, Ontario and Nebraska have demonstrated the potential applicability of these alternative siting principles for radioactive waste. Sommaire: Ni le Canada, ni les États-Unis n'ont construit de nouvelles installations de gestion des déchets radioactifs depuis plus de deux décennies, malgré la production continuelie de déchets supplémentaires et malgré la faible capacité d'élimination fiable. Les deux nations ont déclenché des controverses politiques considérables en essayant de mettre en place de telles installations, et leurs propositions ont été bloquées systématiquement et agressivement par les collectivités locales. Forts de certaines expériences provinciales pour gagner le soutien du public ewers l'emplacement d'une installation de déchets dangereux grâce à un processus volontaire et extensif, l'Ontario et le Nebraska semblent dévier de la réaction classique “ pas dans ma cour ” en ce qui concerne les déchets faiblement radioactifs. Par l'entremise d'une variante du processus utilisé avec succès pour les déchets dnngereux en Alberta et au Manitoba, l'Ontario et le Nebraska ont démontré qu'on pourrait éventuellement appliqucr ces principes de rechanpe pour l'emplacement des installations traitant les déchets radioactifs.     

“Where there's a will …”: Reforming postsecondary education in Canada's and the European Union's decentralized systems

The Bologna Process that created the European Higher Education Area is an elaborate open method of coordination (OMC)‐type process involving the member states, interested parties, social partners and experts. It is the product of the incentives of the actors who created and who sustain it; it embodies a purpose. Is such a process relevant for policy making on postsecondary education in the Canadian federal system? One would need to know if there is a compelling vision, objective or anxiety that motivates the key actors.     

The 1987 National Forest Sector Strategy and the search for a federal role in Canadian forest policy

Abstract: After obtaining office in 1984, the federal Conservative government began a lengthy process of consultations and conferences intended to define a new, expanded, federal role in Canadian forest policy. Despite their best efforts, however, the 1987 National Forest Sector Strategy which emerged from this process envisioned only a very restricted federal role in the sector. On the basis of a survey of federal government activity in the forest sector since 1867, it is argued that the most recent federal initiative, like similar attempts made in 1949, 1966, and 1978, foundered on the obstacles presented to any expanded federal role by the fact that resource ownership and constitutional authority over the forest resource are vested in the provincial governments. Sommaire: Après son arrivée au pouvoir en 1984, le gouvernement conservateur a entrepris un long processus de consultations et de conférences dans le but de définir un rôle nouveau et plus étendu pour le gouvernement fédéral en matitèe de politique forestière au Canada. En dépit de ces efforts, la Stratégie nationale pour le secteur forestier de 1987 qui a résulté de ce processus ne proposait qu'un rôle très restreint au gouvernement fédéral dans ce secteur. Sur la base d'une étude de l'activité du gouvernement fédéral dans le secteur forestier depuis 1867, on indique que cette récente initiative du gouvernement fédéral, à l'image des essais similaires de 1949, 1966 et 1978, se heurte aux obstacles que l'on rencontre lors de toute tentative d'expansion du rôle du fédéral: la propriété des ressources et la compétence constitutionnelle sur les ressources forestières relèvent des gouvernements provinciaux.