Clerk’s Remarks at the INAC Executive Forum

November 10, 2016

Check against delivery.

Good morning everyone. Welcome to a terrific part of the Public Service of Canada, one I am very proud of. Cabinet Secretaries, Clerks, are not supposed to have favourite departments, but in this case I do. I am very pleased to be here today with you. I am going to do a quick overview and go to the Q and A - any question, feedback you want to talk about is fine with me.

The topic of the day is mental health and well-being. I am not an expert by any means, but I have seen the efforts over the last few years of the public service as the largest employer in the country to catch up with the societal trend to deal with mental health and wellness issues. I am very pleased with the progress we have made but there is so much more that we need to do. So today, we can certainly talk about that; or we can talk about the world of EXs; whatever you like. 

Let me give you a bit of context – I think it would be helpful. We are in very interesting times around the world, and that affects our country; the government; and the public service. This also means that it is an incredible time to be a leader in public service in this country for all kinds of reasons. You can look around the world and see what’s happening south of the border, in Europe, in other countries, and there is a disturbing set of trends out there in the world.

Canada’s model of an inclusive society, of being an open, mixed economy in which the market and the state work together, and of a welcoming society that takes in almost 1% of its population as newcomers every single year and does a reasonably good job of bringing them into the economic, social, cultural, political life of the country. We are not a perfect one; but by many standards, we’re becoming a bit of an outlier as a country. 

I think what we have to reflect on is that we didn’t get here by accident. We can’t rest on our laurels. Whatever success we’ve had as a country, it was hard work; it was governance; it was brave politicians and leaders; and it was good public policy; and it was our institutions. All of these got us here, and you are standing on the shoulders of previous generations of public service leaders who made a huge contribution.

One of my favourite topics since I became Clerk of the Privy Council is the successes we have had as a public service. We don’t talk about it much, and we do tend to get lots of feedback on the things that we have done imperfectly, but there are so many positive things we have done. We can’t forget that we are all human beings and not everything goes perfectly. We have journalists; we have opposition politicians; and we have Officers of Parliament. There are lots of people standing up and saying you could have done this better, you should do this better. That’s the deal we accept in a democracy. This makes us better, and it serves our citizens and our taxpayers.

We don’t get lots of opportunities to celebrate the actual contribution we make. It’s good that we have the awards events and the induction events – some of you probably were there last week on the stage – to celebrate accomplishments as teams and individuals.

Another thing that makes Canada successful is that since the beginning – and we’ll celebrate 150 years next year – we have had a non-partisan, impartial, merit-based public service, and it has worked in partnership with the men and women that are elected to office generation after generation. It’s a model which not a lot of other countries have. There will be many thousands of people changing jobs in Washington next year. The same thing happens in some provincial governments, you may have noticed, and in other countries. We, however, have that continuity.

You will recall that a year ago a lot of you were working on transition in this Department or elsewhere. We went from one government to another in 16 calendar days, and they were up and running and functional. This is a truly remarkable accomplishment, and we have been off and running with the mandate of a new government for the last year now.

If there is one thing I can say about this government. You know their agenda. It’s in the Speech from the Throne, it’s in the Budget, and it’s in the mandate letters. You can go on the web; you can look it up; and you can go to sites that track how many of those commitments are on track. Their intentions are very, very clear and they are willing to be very candid about measuring whether you’re on track or not, and explaining why and why not.

The other quality of this government is that it is “open, open, open, open”. Open engagements and consultations – people that are affected by decisions should be involved. You guys know that because of the Honour of the Crown, and its being spread to other parts of government. 

This government is very candid about results and progress, and you’re seeing that. A lot are being held to account, and are being asked the “right” questions: explain to me again what we’re trying to do here; how do you know whether we’re getting there; if we are, great, how can we reinforce it, but if we’re not, what do we have to course correct and fix? This ongoing, open dialogue about results is really the environment all of you are going to have to work in for the next five years, ten years, because I don’t think it’ll ever go back. This is a model of governing that probably will stick no matter who gets elected in 2019 or 2023.

That brings me to your role as executives in the public service. There are 280,000 public servants and 320 different organizations doing everything from service to regulations, to policy development, to negotiations, to international representation. It’s an incredible institution, and I’ve had the great pleasure of getting to know a lot of it better over the last year.

The real engine room of moving it forward, on results and getting things done for Canadians, and the work environment for those 280,000 people, is set by you, the executives of the public service. You set the priorities; you create the expectations in terms of timelines and quality control; and you create the tone of your workplaces. The tone that you set is going to be the tone of your organizations. The public service is a chameleon, and it adapts to the tone and the behaviours of its leadership very quickly.

If you’re out there being cynical and defeatist, you will have a cynical and defeatist team within weeks. But if you are resilient and upbeat and carry on – pick yourself up and keep going – that’s the team you will have.

This brings me to topic of workplace well-being. One thing I have learned from sitting in various advisory committee meetings is that there is an inextricable link between management practices and workplace well-being. One of the vectors is stress. Stress can lead to mental health problems. One of the biggest sources of stress is poor management practices.

So, part of the recipe – because obviously there are other issues – is your conduct, your behaviour, your competence as leaders. As leaders, you are going to have a big impact on workplace environment. So, I'm glad you’re spending time talking about these things. There is a lot we can do in terms of personal resilience. These jobs are never going to get easier.  They’re only going to get more and more complex. So, resilience as an individual; resilience as a team; and as a community, is going to be part of how we continue to move forward.

And to paraphrase Hillary Clinton, “it’s worth it.” Because when you create those teams and those organizations, when you’re delivering results for the people that count on you out there, and you can see the progress, whether it’s in relationships or results or having things built or achieving pieces of historic reconciliation, that is incredibly satisfying work. You may not get a lot of the credit for it. It’s the Minister who will, as it should be, but you know what you did, and you can go back to your families and your communities, and you can puff out your chest with a little bit of pride, and say I had a part in that. I was part of the architecture of that. I was part of the building of that. I was part of the implementation of that.

So, yes, being a leader is a tough job. There are not a lot of “thank yous” and “kudos”, or positive feedback. It is a lot of responsibility and a lot of pressure. Being a leader is a stressful job - when you have no money in your budget, it is stressful to deliver programs and services; but when you have a lot of money in your budget, and you have to get it out the door, it is stressful.

So, as a leader, you’ve got to learn different techniques of resilience for different kinds of environments and situations. Getting together and actually having these conversations and talking to each other is a big part of the recipe as well.

There are a lot of other topics we could explore together, but let me just close on one last point. In his mandate letter, the Prime Minister made reconciliation with Indigenous peoples a top priority for him personally and for the government. That means that there is a determination to get things done; and a determination to try new things. It is not to try 1990’s programs and 1990’s institutions with a bit more enthusiasm.

If we have to back up and try different arrangements, different institutions, different programs, different tools, the Prime Minister will be open to it. If you have a business case and you have an idea, now is a good time for innovation; for creativity; and for new solutions. And, of course, they will have to be built together with the Indigenous peoples of this country. The techniques of dialogue; of engagement; of open policymaking; of co-management; and of governance, are coming into every part of government. You are the pioneers that have been at this ever since at least section 35 and in some cases before that. You actually have a lot to teach the rest of the public service.

Finally, I want to leave you with one last message: thank you to all of you, since you don’t get too many. I know what you do. I know what you do better than most. And I'm just immensely grateful. Thank you in advance for what is going to be an incredibly challenging and rewarding year in 2017.

Thank you. Miigwetch.