A while back, a handful of public servants, myself included, were at a speaker event about fostering social entrepreneurship in Canada. This topic spanned civil society, business, and government, and each sector was roughly evenly represented. When the speaker opened the entire room up to a free-ranging discussion, I was blown away – the most concerned, most passionate (slash loudest), and most well-versed participants were my fellow public servants.
We have a major trust deficit as public servants. Only 14% of Canadians have a strongly positive view of our role in public policy, and this weighs on the bureaucracy. It limits our management options, nudging the range of possibilities towards the politically safe side. It may also hurt our recruitment and retention capacity. But the people at that speaker series, that night, had to leave with at least a greater appreciation for the public service – even if they disagreed with some of us.
Growing up in Prince Edward Island, I remember regularly seeing Environment Canada meteorologists on the local news. I know that PEI is, perhaps, an outlier, but it left a positive impression about that department. These days, I find myself worrying about our level of interaction with the people we serve – It seems we are in danger of becoming “Ottawa bubble bureaucrats.” It’ll be harder for us to understand and trust Canadians, and it’ll be harder for Canadians to understand and trust us.
…This is both a general thought (that I’d like to see less of a gulf between public and public servants) and a good luck Richard.
