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Speech by
Lucienne Robillard,
President of the Treasury Board, Minister responsible for Infrastructure and
Member of Parliament for Westmount-Ville-Marie
November 30, 2001
Hôtel Delta
Sherbrooke, Quebec
Dear Friends,
It was with enormous pleasure that I accepted the invitation from the
Chair of the Quebec Federal Council, André Gladu, to take part in the
Managers' Development Seminar 2001. I was even happier because your
theme is so inspirational! It touches me very closely because
"talking about passion" necessarily involves human beings and
thus our chief asset as an organization.
I have said it before and I will say it again now: no organization,
whether it be private or public, can forget that, fundamentally, its
prosperity and success are owed to its human resources.
To begin with, I would like to approach the subject from my perception
of passion as the driving force behind our actions, both in our personal
and in our professional lives. After that, I would like to talk about my
desire to have us acquire the tools that will allow us, as managers in the
midst of modernizing our human resources management, to improve the ways
in which we foster and channel this passion within the Public Service of
Canada.
Passion, the driving force behind action
Many speakers have taken turns speaking to you about passion over the
last two days: how to find it and how to inspire it. While I do not claim
to be an expert on the subject, I would like to share with you something
of my own vision of passion.
Passion, in my opinion, is the driving force behind action. It is from
passion, whether personal or professional, that we decide to invest
ourselves in a relationship, a job or a community organization. It is from
passion that we give unstintingly of ourselves without counting the hours,
that we always want to do better. It is what inspires us, despite the
occasional hard times. It is passion that steels our resolve as we make
our way to work; it is passion that, despite our busy week, lets us find
the time to spend with our families and our friends. It is passion that
keeps us on our toes, constantly learning and staying up to date in our
field.
I am, as you might guess, a passionate woman. And my first passion is
for human beings. With some hindsight, I can say that passion has been the
main theme of my entire career. In the beginning, when I was studying for
my Bachelor of Arts degree, I thought I would go into pure mathematics. I
had a facility with figures and I was attracted by the notion of playing
with mathematical concepts. But the signals that life sometimes sends us
are hard to ignore.
My experience as a volunteer with impoverished families in the St-Henri
area turned me on: from then on, I wanted to devote my energies to working
for and with people. So I redirected my career goals towards social work,
not as a theoretician but as a clinician. And I loved that period of my
career: there is nothing more satisfying than to go to sleep at night in
the certainty that you have made a real difference in people's lives by
listening to them and working out solutions to their problems with them.
I was enjoying this work so much that the first time I was asked to
compete for a management position, I refused from fear of losing contact
with individual people. In my view at the time, becoming a manager was
incompatible with my deep need to be in touch with "real people"...
It was my colleagues and my superiors who convinced me that management was
not incompatible with my passion for the human side - far from it! And I
am glad I agreed, because I discovered that, on the contrary, management
was not merely an administrative activity. The human dimension is just as
important, if not more so.
It was still the same passion that guided me when the Minister of
Justice asked me to be the Public Curator of Quebec. Traditionally, the
position had been occupied by lawyers or notaries, more concerned with the
legal aspects of curatorship. The challenge of putting the human dimension
back in the centre of our concerns as a public organization was
considerable. But what a fascinating challenge! I loved that job.
It was the same sort of passion that encouraged me, when invited, to
make the jump to politics. I felt that this could be an excellent way to
advance my values and ideas in a collegial setting. Let me share an
anecdote with you. The decision to become involved in politics is not an
easy choice. Politicians do not have the best image, the hours are
sometimes long and it can often be difficult to reconcile family life and
work. While the people in the Quebec Premier's entourage only painted
for me the good aspects of the politician's trade, I nevertheless
decided, in spite of being the passionate person that I am, to listen to
my rational side. I accordingly met with Mr. Bourassa and I asked him,
with some naïvety you might say, to tell me about the less agreeable
aspects of political life. I will never forget that conversation. He asked
me if I could live with ingratitude. Everything else, he told me, can be
accepted and managed if you have the passion, but ingratitude, because it
can be an ungrateful profession as you well know, means that if you do not
accept this fact, you will very soon be unhappy. I thought it over
carefully and agreed to join his team, in full knowledge of how things
were.
I was fortunate in politics and I am aware of this. All through my
career as a minister in Quebec, I had portfolios where I could indulge my
passion for the human side of things, especially when I had the good luck
to find myself heading the ministère de l'Éducation et de l'Enseignment
supérieur. It is fascinating and motivating to work for young people and
be surrounded by a team of senior officials who are themselves passionate
about youth. This was a memorable professional delight.
But we live in a democracy and, in the 1994 election, Quebeckers made a
different choice. At the time, I was convinced that my political career
was over. For me, politics is not an end in itself, but a way to move
things ahead. So I was not bitter, since democracy and the expression of
democracy remain at the heart of our fundamental values as citizens of
Canada.
Then, the Prime Minister of Canada invited me to join his team in the
context of the referendum. I have never concealed my convictions: I am a
proud Quebecker and a proud Canadian. I was thus able to thoroughly
explore another passion: my passion for my country. Remember 1995 and all
the passionate discussions we all had at the time!
I also think that Mr. Chrétien was aware of my passion for the human
side because he then entrusted me with the Immigration and Citizenship
portfolio. It is a fascinating department because of the contact with
people who chose our country as their promised land and the contacts with
our front-line employees who daily handle sometimes difficult situations.
I had the most moving professional experience in my entire career
welcoming refugees from Kosovo to Canada, and I sincerely believe that
every employee in the department shared this feeling of having experienced
something exceptional. It is unfortunate that this kind of crisis happens,
but it allowed us to experience the whole positive side of the mission of
a department that, more often than not, is identified with negative
elements such as illegal immigration.
Thanks to a subsequent restructuring, the Prime Minister then asked me
to take over the Treasury Board. What I thought was that this position in
the upper levels of government financial administration would take me away
from the human side. Like many people, I was forgetting that, beyond the
administrative aspect, the Treasury Board is also the employer... And that
I could devote my energies to ensuring that our employees feel happy and
proud to belong to the Public Service of Canada.
As you see, you need a good amount of passion to practice the
politician's trade and be happy doing so. I adore this work because it
lets me influence our country's social and economic environment and thus
let human beings develop their full potential.
In the various portfolios that have been given to me since I entered
politics twelve years ago, I have had the fortune of working with skilled
and passionate people and undertaking major reforms with them -- not for
the pleasure of making reforms, you may rest assured! -- but because I
consider it essential that we have our organizations and the way we do
things fit the new realities. It is only at this price that we, as a
government, can fulfil our first mission, which is to serve the citizens
of this country.
The Public Service of Canada is still passionate about its mission
The last decade has not been easy: the many economic,
social and technological changes have followed one another at a pace
seldom seen before.
As a government, we had promised to make big changes in
public finance and we did. We wanted to leave our children and our
grandchildren a country that was economically sound and, thanks to the
efforts of all Canadians, we have done so. And, first and foremost, it is
our employees, the public servants, who saw the very nature of their work
profoundly changed.
But these changes, we must admit, have had a role in
the morale of our employees. I told you a little while ago that the image
of politicians is hardly a pleasing one. The image of our Public Service
employees is also not too wonderful, but less so, I must say. There are
those who, wrongly, try to convey the image of a cynical Public Service.
However, I was in a position where I could observe the Public Service from
close up and that is not the case!
The floods in Saguenay and Manitoba, the ice storm, the
Kosovo crisis and the reception of the refugees, the Swiss Air tragedy
and, more recently, the September 11 attacks are all occasions where the
employees of the Public Service of Canada dedicated themselves body and
soul to responding to an emergency. They were confronted with the need to
react and they responded admirably to the call.
And why did they do this? Not because they had to, but
because they felt called on to do so. Because in their hearts they, too,
want to serve their fellow citizens. And because they have a passion for
doing their work as best as they know how, to the best of their abilities.
Because, I dare say, they still have a passion for their work.
Although the challenges that lie ahead of us, as a
public organization, are not on the order of a natural disaster, they are
no less demanding. We face an aging population in Canada and a Public
Service that is growing old as well. Since September, we are once again
confronted with new economic realities. We must meet our international
obligations, we must manage our borders and ensure security within our
territory, while conserving our fundamental values of hospitality,
tolerance and openness. We are also confronted with the needs of the
younger generation, which wants to take its place in our society and whom
we must provide with good tools to get started. In short, these challenges
do not have the urgency of a major crisis, but they are, in my opinion,
just as basic.
To manage the new challenges, we must apply the same
eagerness and method as we do when disaster strikes. We must start by
recognizing the urgency for taking action and identify our needs. We must
then work together on solutions, simplifying processes as much as
possible, while ensuring the accountability of the decision-makers.
Modernized human resources management
It is these principles that guide me in the
modernization of our human resources management. To respond to the
challenges ahead, we must provide our managers with flexible tools, suited
to needs. For a number of years now, the government has been embarked on
the exercise of bringing its management up to date, starting with finance.
It is therefore normal and high time, I would add, that we now make it a
priority to tackle our management practices as they relate to our most
precious resource, our employees. Our human resources management system is
antiquated and obsolete. It does not allow us to respond adequately to our
own needs in this area. It is more than time for this file to become our
number one priority.
The Public Service of Canada must once more become not
only the employer of choice for our young people, but above all a model
work environment, a work environment where our employees will understand
and share the significance of what they do and where they will feel that
they are making a positive contribution, since they will feel that they
are valued themselves. From my perspective, this is a basic prerequisite
if we want to ensure good public services, both for our current employees
and for those we hope to recruit.
In addition, we must simplify our recruiting process by
promoting innovation and flexibility, while giving managers the tools they
need to do their jobs well. Never again should it be easier to go around
the system because it is too complex, too slow and too cumbersome! You are
managers and, therefore, you must be ready, with the help of our human
resources directors who will become real strategic advisers in this area,
to assume these new responsibilities fully if you are given the means to
do so.
At the same time, we must redefine our work relations
with our employees and establish better relations with our union partners.
Let it be said: the Public Service of Canada took shape in a unionized
environment and it will remain a unionized environment. The Fryer report,
which you have certainly seen, has suggested some interesting approaches
that we intend to take it into account in modernizing human resources
management. Furthermore, in my consultation travels this summer, I saw
that, at the local level, many of our managers maintain a harmonious
working partnership with the unions. This must become a widespread
practice.
These are only a few of the aspects involved in the
modernization of human resources management. The Task Force led by Ranald
Quail, after many consultations last summer, still has its work cut out
for it, but I am very confident. We are meeting our objectives on schedule
and the group should soon table its recommendations for legislative
changes. And I have repeatedly expressed my intention of tabling, in the
summer of 2002, a bill that matches our ambitions and that will allow us
to achieve our objectives.
Legislative changes are required, then, but I invite
you more especially to make a change in our organizational culture. In the
last year, we have updated a number of our policies and are continuing to
do so together with our partners. Providing ourselves with suitable tools,
giving our employees a taste for being at the cutting edge in what they
know and sharing that knowledge, this is what should guide us on a
day-to-day basis.
*****
As you have no doubt realized, the modernization of
human resources management is an area in which I take a passionate
interest! But it is also an area that fascinates you as managers. This I
know because so many of you have participated in the consultations or in
sharing your comments with us via our telephone line and website. And it
is a good thing that this is how it is: you have field experience in this
area and it is to your needs that we want to respond.
My fervent hope is that the exercise in which we are
present engaged will let us give ourselves a sufficiently flexible
framework to allow for future evolution and leave us open to change, since
it is a framework that will serve us for decades to come. Accordingly, it
must be adapted to our needs but it must also be visionary.
Allow me, finally, a closing wish. I wish that all this
energy I see here today, all this passion in you which I sense you are
ready to convey back to our teams, let it be contagious. Passion is never
completely extinguished and very little is needed to rekindle it. Be these
agents of change and share your passion!
Thank you for your attention.
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