6 February 2009
Ottawa, Ontario
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced changes to streamline and improve the management of human resources in the Public Service of Canada. This move will simplify the organizational structure for human resources management, reduce overlap and duplication and provide Deputy Ministers with the primary responsibility for managing the people in their own departments and agencies.
“These changes will advance our commitment to Public Service renewal by ensuring that our public servants have the clear mandate and organization they need to continue providing sound policy advice to the government and high quality services to Canadians,” the Prime Minister said.; “I would like to thank the Right Honourable Don Mazankowski and the Honourable Paul Tellier, along with the members of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service, who provided clear advice on the need to make structural changes to the human resources structure and accountability system.”
In its report last February, the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service found the existing human resources governance structure to be “overly complex, with multiple players and a resulting burden of duplicative and often unnecessary rules.”
Effective March 2, 2009, a new Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer will be created by combining the current functions of the Canada Public Service Agency and those parts of the Treasury Board Secretariat dealing with pensions and benefits, labour relations and compensation, to be housed within the Treasury Board Secretariat.
This new structure recognizes that Deputy Ministers have the primary responsibility for human resources management and provides them with flexibility to respond to their specific business needs.
* * * *
For more information:
Fifteenth Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada
Second Report of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service
Backgrounder on Human Resources Governance (Treasury Board Secretariat web site)
Backgrounder on Strategic Reviews (Treasury Board Secretariat web site)
