Transcript: Building the Public Service of the Future Together – An Armchair Discussion with the Clerk of the Privy Council
(Daniel Watson stands at podium.)
Daniel Watson (Chief Human Resources Officer, Government of Canada): Good afternoon, everyone.
Welcome to this informal conversation this afternoon, that in addition to being informal, we hope will also be interesting and inspirational.
My name is Daniel Watson and I’m the chief human resources officer for the government of Canada. I will also be your M.C. for today’s event.
I would like to welcome everyone who is here on site and those joining us by webcast.
I understand there are over a thousand of you in different rooms across the Public Service today, and that’s probably a great representation of what this exercise we hope will become, and the way in which we’ll do it.
Today, we have the privilege of hearing from the Clerk of the Privy Council, Mr. Wayne Wouters, as well as my colleague Deputy Minister Louise Levonian.
(Daniel Watson points to Wayne Wouters and Louise Levonian.)
Louise will be talking to us today in her role as Chair of the Subcommittee on Public Service Engagement of the Board of Management and Renewal.
A question and answer period will follow the presentations. This will give you an opportunity to participate in the discussion and tell us your recommendations.
As you can see, we have screens each side of the stage, and another at the back of the room that will show you the Twitter feed that we’re using throughout the event. For those of you who use Twitter, we’re using the hashtag #gc2020.
If you are participating online, I invite you to submit your questions and comments by using the “participate” button located in the top right corner of your screen.
So for those of you who are participating online, I’d invite you to use the “participate” button that will be in the upper right hand side of your screen. On that note, I will now turn it over to my colleague, Linda Lizotte-MacPherson, Deputy Minister and president of the Canada School of Public Service, who will say a few words and present our first guest speaker. Over to you, Linda.
(Linda Lizotte-MacPherson takes the podium.)
Linda Lizotte-Macpherson (Deputy Minister and President, Canada School of Public Service): Thank you, Daniel.
Thank you. Welcome. The Canada School of Public Service is very pleased to be hosting this in person and virtual event.
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the School today.
It’s also an honour for me to introduce our two guest speakers, the Clerk of the Privy Council, Mr. Wayne Wouters, and my deputy colleague, Louise Levonian. Louise was asked by the Clerk to chair the Subcommittee on Public Service Engagement, which is actually a subcommittee of the Board of Management and Renewal. This committee is leading the work to prepare for a nationwide dialogue with all public servants on the future of our great institution.
Mr. Wouters was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet by the Prime Minister on July 1, 2009.
And as the official head of the Federal Public Service, he’s also our collective boss. As you can imagine, he has many, many daily responsibilities to juggle. But I can tell you firsthand that he cares deeply and passionately about our institution and about the men and women who work within it.
Because of that, he has devoted a great deal of his time and energy to the transformation and renewal of the Public Service. The 20th Annual Report to the Prime Minister was made public on May 2.
In my view, it’s one of the most significant reports in recent years. His reflections on the changes unfolding in society and in the Public Service should spark deep thinking in all of our institutions about the need to transform and adapt. In his report, the Clerk recognized the need for public servants to talk about the way forward and how we’re going to get there together. To quote him, “In order to transform ourselves to meet the demands of the future, we need a clear vision of what our Public Service should become.”
Mr. Wouters, we look forward to hearing about your vision for the future of the Public Service.
So without further ado, please join me in welcoming our guest speaker, Wayne Wouters. (Applause)
(Wayne Wouters takes the podium.)
Wayne Wouters (Clerk, Privy Council Office): Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you, Daniel, thank you, Linda, for your warm welcome. I’d like to acknowledge the support of the Canada School of Public Service in hosting and coordinating this event.
I’d like to thank all of you for joining us today, either in person or by linking in. It is great to see so many enthusiastic and energetic public servants!
And I have to say that I never would have thought when I started my career 35 years ago that I would be talking to public servants directly coast to coast to coast and around the world. It has changed a lot. Our jobs have changed a lot over time. I was almost late here this afternoon. I was with the Prime Minister. And I was getting a little nervous, because he kept raising issues, and I finally said, “Prime Minister, I have to go”. (Laughter). He said, “Why do you have to go?” I said, “Because I’m launching this dialogue that we’re going to have, Blueprint 2020.” He says, “You better go, because,” he said, “I just briefed the cabinet on this yesterday about this initiative. I’m supportive. Have a great launch.” So we have the Prime Minister with us this afternoon. And thanks to Louise for her dedication and leadership as our champion. She’s done a great job in organizing this kick-off and our engagement strategy as we move forward.
As the head of the Public Service, I am delighted to be speaking to future leaders of the largest, most complex organization in Canada.
You know, public service matters enormously to our economy and to our well-being. Canadians depend on a professional, non-partisan and high-performing Public Service.
Together, we are responsible for delivering diverse and very critical programs and services that touch the day-to-day lives and businesses of Canadians in all regions, in all regions of the country.
I will start today’s presentation by saying that this is a pivotal time for Canada’s Public Service.
The world in which the Public Service operates, in which all of us operate, is becoming increasingly complex; there is no doubt about that. And we need, I think we need new competencies; we need new capabilities to navigate it successfully.
We must keep pace to serve Canada and Canadians, now and in the future. The Public Service has a solid history of adapting to meet Canada’s needs.
For example, over the past couple of years, we have begun a process to renew and to transform the Public Service. Significant delivery of a dynamic policy agenda of now a majority government. And reengineering many of our internal and our external services.
And across the Public Service, I think we’re improving services to Canadians by leveraging technology. We’re doing that each and every year. And by developing innovative solutions. We are innovators, ladies and gentlemen, no doubt about that. We are changing how we do the business of government and how we serve Canadians. This is changing the nature of work and our workplaces. So to continue evolving in pace with Canadians and their needs, I think we need a clear and shared vision, a way forward, if you will, of what Canada’s Public Service – the best public service in the world, I have to say – should become in decades ahead. We need to know what are the competencies required for the future, what skill sets do we need? We need to know what tools we should explore that could help us deliver services more effectively and efficiently. And how could we better meet the expectations of Canadians in this Web 2.0 world that we are living in and I’m trying to learn about every single day that I’m a public servant.
At my invitation, over the past year, senior deputies came together to develop a vision of a revitalized and world-class Public Service equipped to serve Canada and Canadians, now and into the future.
This resulting work, called Blueprint 2020, getting started, getting your views, articulates a vision, a vision for the Public Service for the long term, hopefully positioning it for continuing excellence. It has four guiding principles. These are :
Firstly, an open and networked environment that engages citizens and partners for the public good. Secondly, a whole-of-government approach that enhances service delivery and value for money. Thirdly, a modern workplace that makes smart use of technologies to improve networking, access to data and customer service. And finally, the fourth, a capable, a confident, a high-performing workforce that embraces new ways of working and mobilizing the diversity of talent to serve the country’s evolving needs.
Today we are launching the engagement process for the Blueprint 2020 vision. Deputy heads have been asked to broaden the conversation around this document, Blueprint 2020 and the vision so that public servants across the country can join in. And Louise will talk a little more about how we actually are going to roll out this collaborative approach. But I will say this: engagement is structured around a discussion of the vision, and through discussion and idea generation, the development in the end of an action plan. We take it from the vision to what are we going to do about this. While the Blueprint 2020 engagement process is voluntary – you don’t have to take part if you don’t want – but I do hope, I do hope all of you will get involved in the engagement. We need all public servants in all regions and all parts of the world to help refine the vision – it is simply a draft – over the course of the coming months, and to determine what we need to do together to make it a reality. This webinar event marks the launch, as I said, of Blueprint 2020 vision, and the beginning of our engagement efforts and organizational activities across the Public Service in all regions of the country.
I am particularly pleased that the dialogue around the Blueprint 2020 vision is being launched as part of National Public Service Week.
The theme of this year’s National Public Service Week, “Proudly serving Canadians”, succinctly captures what public servants across the organization strive for: to serve Canadians with the passion, integrity, pride and excellence, and, I have to say, National Public Service Week begins on Monday, so in advance, happy National Public Service Week to all of you, and all of you across the country. We must build on these strengths. As we reflect on our achievements this National Public Service Week, we should think about what the Public Service can and should be, and the dialogue on the Blueprint 2020 vision is your opportunity to help shape the Public Service of tomorrow.
As a leader, I recognize that we must be open to new ideas and approaches to doing things.
I am delighted that the launch platform for this important initiative is both technology-enabled and involves public servants from across Canada.
I encourage each and every one of you to become involved, to share your ideas – and help shape a concrete action plan that will help us make progress towards the Blueprint 2020 vision.
Together we’ll find fresh ways to uphold the tradition of excellence that is truly the hallmark of the Public Service of Canada. I challenge you to get involved. Join the discussion. Share your ideas. This is your opportunity to be heard. Thank you for your time.
(Louise Levonian takes the podium.)
Louise Levonian (Chair, Subcommittee on Public Service Engagement of the Board of Management and Renewal): Thank you, Linda. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you, Clerk. Thank you to the School for organizing this event. And just before I get started, I want to say that a lot of work goes into an initiative like this, and I have to say that there was a very small team of people who worked on pulling this together, and I just have to say to those people thank you very much for everything you’ve done. This is the product of your work.
Ok, so good afternoon. I would like to thank all of you for having taken the time to be here today because we have an important message to share with all of you.
Today’s event reminds me of the enthusiasm and inspiration I felt when I first joined the Public Service in 1990. I joined because in the Public Service, you can make a difference.
And I realize that sounds corny, but I truly believe it, because I’ve been really lucky in my career. I’ve done a lot of interesting things. I’ve worked at a lot of interesting places, and with some really great people, and I think the work that I’ve done has truly made a difference to Canadians. We are a professional, non-partisan Public Service. We work truly in the public interest, and we have a proud tradition of excellence. This tradition has placed us among the best in the world. Today as Chair of the Subcommittee on Public Service Engagement, I want us all to feel that same enthusiasm as we look forward to the future. By the way, I’ve never had such a long title in my life! (Laughter). I’ve shortened it just for this purpose.
The Public Service has a history of adapting to meet Canada’s needs. The Clerk has spoken to us about how much the world is changing. Now it’s our generation’s turn to make sure our institution keeps pace with the changes so that we can best serve Canada and Canadians now and into the future.
To carry the proud tradition of the Public Service of Canada forward, we need a clear and shared vision of the future, and a blueprint to map the way forward.
The Clerk has set out the Blueprint vision, and has asked deputies to broaden the conversation around this vision, so here’s what we need to ask ourselves: what does the vision mean for me? What is needed to make this vision a reality? What can I do to help achieve this vision?
We want to have an inclusive dialogue across the country, a dialogue for everyone to contribute. This whole process is voluntary. The engagement process is flexible so that we can adjust to the realities of each organization and the individuals who work for them. The dialogue is going to go on in many different ways.
First of all, deputy heads will engage their departments and agencies. We expect all deputy heads to name an engagement champion who will support them and facilitate the engagement with staff based on a tailored approach that works for their organization. Your Deputy Head and their Engagement Champions will be ambassadors of this engagement process, and they will be working with you to provide input to develop an action plan to make the vision a reality. Support them in this process – it’s your chance to shape our future.
Second, deputy heads will engage horizontally across the Public Service. Deputy Ministers who champion programs and communities will reach out and support the dialogue among groups. These groups range from the Federal Youth Network, the National Managers’ Community – some of you are here today – to the official languages community. Deputy heads will reach out to visible minorities, aboriginal employees, employees with disabilities, and networks of public servants working, for example, on communications, human resources, finance, IM/IT. I encourage all of you to get organized and get started right away. I should add that as we embark on this journey, the chief human resources officer, sitting right here with us, has reached out to the bargaining agents and this outreach will continue over the weeks and months to come.
Third, externally, anyone will be able to input through the Clerk’s website. We’ll be seeking input from outside groups as well, particularly those interested in public administration, like the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service. We will also talk to universities.
Fourth, this dialogue is going to be the first whole-of-government level to use web tools like GCconnex and GCpedia to engage and seek advice from all public servants. I mentioned the Clerk’s website. GCpedia and GCconnex are our own online social media tools where we take the dialogue live daily... and there they are! Technology working again, they’re up on the screen. Right now as I speak, we are engaged in a live, bilingual Twitter feed too that was going on before. We will post summary reports of the discussion that have taken place to stimulate further discussion. GCpedia is where you will find links to the Blueprint vision, background information, frequently asked questions. There’s also an engagement process guide that will help in planning how we carry out the dialogue. And as well, there’ll be a deck for presentation.
We will collect what we’ve heard from departments and agencies, networks and outside contributors to provide an interim report in the fall. This is to let people know how the process is going and provide some insight into what we have heard so far. This will eventually lead us to a Blueprint 2020 action plan that we’ll start implementing together in 2014.
This is not a top-down process. This is a call for everyone’s ideas. As they say, no one is as smart as all of us together. Each one of you can bring this dialogue and vision to life. As all of you know, you get out of life what you put into it. This is why investing ourselves in developing the Blueprint 2020 action plan offers such promise. It’s a promise of a more rewarding workplace, of better meeting the needs of Canadians now and into the future.
For all of this to work, we need you. You are change agents, and we need to know what you think. Whatever work you do and wherever you do it, your input and support is needed.
Our counterparts abroad tell us that our Public Service stands among the best in the world. We will remain a proudly bilingual, professional, non-partisan institution. We work for the public interest. We are anchored in our core values. Our Public Service has a long history of adapting to meet Canada’s needs.
The Blueprint 2020 vision builds on this pride.
The vision sees us as a capable and high-performing workforce that work together with citizens and partners, making smart use of technology and seeking whole-of-government opportunities that enhance the service delivery and value for money. This is a Public Service that is nimble, innovative, and able to anticipate and respond to the evolving needs of Canadians and their government.
I’ve talked about the approach we’re taking to make sure everyone gets a chance to contribute. In closing, I’d like to tell you why I care about this.
I’ve said before, I’ve had a very lucky career. I don’t know. I’ve gotten to work on really interesting things. And now I’ve been chairing this subcommittee, working on this vision since the fall of 2012. Blueprint 2020 is a top priority for me, and here’s why. First, I care about this because I plan to be here in the Public Service in 2020. It’s personal for me. I feel an acute sense of responsibility today, as you should.
(View of audience)
I forgot to look up and smile at you when I say that. (Laughter)
So, what we do now is going to shape the Public Service of tomorrow.
Second, we know change is a given – the global environment, social forces, constantly evolving technology, and a workforce on the verge of transition to the post-baby boom era. When you look outside your window in the spring, you know that things are going to grow. In the spring, you can make choices about what grows where and how.
Transformation is inevitable. We can sit back and let it happen, or we can think about how we want it to happen. I believe in the latter.
Thirdly, good organizations plan and prepare for the future. Great organizations engage their employees to strive to reach their full potential. We know that engagement leads to better job satisfaction, lower absenteeism, a high-performing workforce, and happier employees. I want to be part of that Public Service… part of a Public Service that engages its employees.
Fourth, and this comes back to why we do what we do – the role of the Public Service, why I joined it in 1990. In my department, we run the Budget process and provide advice on funding priorities; we oversee the financial sector and set tax policy, to improve the lives of Canadians. In other organizations, public servants provide Old Age Security, Employment Insurance and passports. We stand on guard for Canada’s sovereignty and offer humanitarian assistance to countries in need of help. We also help Canadian families save for higher education. Public servants represent Canada on the world stage, and our work helps make this a better world. Canadians count on us, and we deliver high quality results. I want to keep doing that. But to be the best, you cannot stand still.
Canadians expect this of their public servants, and they expect us to keep pace with the times. The Blueprint 2020 vision and the Clerk’s Report to the Prime Minister include examples of how public servants are already taking steps to improve how we work, strive for excellence in how we serve Canada and Canadians as a high performing team with open networks, tech savvy, and cost effective approaches. When I look at those examples, I feel a deep sense of pride in what we do, and a great sense of satisfaction in being a public servant in Canada. That’s why Blueprint 2020 matters. That’s why this dialogue matters. What you say and do now will determine how we can best serve Canada and Canadians now and into the future. Thank you very much. (Applause)
(Louise Levonian leaves the podium and Daniel Watson takes the podium.)
Daniel Watson: What a launch for a process. The Twitter wall here I find amazing.
Three things that I’ll just mention quickly. One of them that I thought was interesting is somebody said that they’ve always thought of the Clerk as more than just our boss, but even more than that, our champion of change, which I thought was something very interesting there, and Louise, I suspect the entire room and crowd would share this one, where it says, “Louise is inspiring.” So that was up there as well.
The final one I would like to mention because the Clerk touched on it in his opening remarks. I don’t know how many times people tweeted about how it was “standing room only”. There must be at least 20 mentions of rooms that have more than 100 people in them!
That’s an extraordinary thing. And as the Clerk mentioned, not something we could have done even a relatively short period of time ago.
Mr. Wouters, Louise, thank you for providing us with your presentations and your comments this afternoon.
So this is where we go to the questions and answers, and you can ask questions to the Clerk or to Louise. I’ll be prepared to take some of those questions as well. We have people joining us via webcast who can join by pressing the “participate” button on the top right hand of your screen. Someone’s monitoring the inbox here in the room, and we’ll read those questions to our speakers on your behalf.
For the participants on site, please use the microphones located on each side of the room. Please introduce yourself before asking your question.
And there are also some Twitter questions that we will be following, too. So I’ll do this in a cycle, and I’ll start with the questions from web, and then go to Twitter, and then go to the floor. So that’s the signal for those of you here to think who wants to get up to a mic.
(View of audience)
Jean, I believe you have our first question.
Jean: Yes. Actually, we have received many questions along this theme. We’re having a lot of questions coming in. So the first question is pertaining to how people can contribute to Blueprint 2020. Is it something that they do within their departments, on an individual basis, through networks, communities, so a little bit more information on that?
(Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters are sitting down.)
Louise Levonian: I think that’s a really good question, actually, and I’m glad someone asked that right off the bat. I didn’t work it into my speech.
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian)
I think that there’s going to be many different ways that people can contribute. For sure there’s the vertical way through the deputy process, through summaries. We’re going to be asking all deputies to provide input into the summary report, and also into the action plan at the end. So that’s one method. There’s also through all the different communities, for sure. That again is a summary report that’s going to filter in and come in to pull together the action plan at the end. But there is also, and I think this is really important, the first time through social media that we’re going to be able to gather information directly from you. So we’re going to have on GCpedia, GCconnex, we’re going to try and create dialogue around the questions. So there’s going to be the first question, and then we’re going to hopefully have a back and forth. Hopefully people will sign on and start the dialogue there. So there’s going to be that process directly. And we’re actually hoping it’s going to evolve and morph and see how that goes. We’re going to have a dialogue around each of the questions and see how that goes, but we’re hoping that there’s going to be streams that come off that, and further discussions, and how ideas are going to be developed collectively in that sort of thing. And then the other way is if you don’t want to contribute in this kind of an open forum, we’re going to have a little reporting page on GCpedia that is going to allow us to submit ideas individually. Anybody can just submit if they have any ideas or any thoughts. It doesn’t have to be through a public forum. You can just submit that report and provide some input there too. There’s obviously the email site that the Clerk has on his website. So there are all kinds of different ways through communities in summary, or just all by yourself.
(Zoom out to Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters.)
So there’s going to be all kinds of different ways.
(View of audience, then zoom in on Wayne Wouters.)
Wayne Wouters: Thank you. When I talk to public servants across the country, the need to be more networked, more collaborative is often expressed. Well, this is now our own experiment, right? This is the first time that we are launching an engagement strategy whereby it will not be filtered through your boss up to the DG, up to the ADM, up to the deputy. This is an opportunity for all of you to basically participate directly, because we now have the tool to do this. So we’re scared as hell! (Laughter). No, because you know, we’ve never done this before. We have done a lot of different collaborative initiatives, but this is one about us and our future, and who we are, and saying all of you have an opportunity now to contribute perhaps to me and to us directly, as opposed to the other ways we do, which maybe often we screen out views that I don’t get to hear, we don’t get to hear. So this is a real opportunity. I think it’s great. You know, I really do think this is great to be able to do this.
(View of audience)
Daniel Watson: We will now take a question from Twitter and then we’ll take one from the room, so I encourage people to approach the microphones. Stéphane, do we have a question from Twitter?
Stéphane: Yes. We’ve got a question from Jacques Mailloux, Twitter user @6t6qt – it matters in the Twitter world. (Laughter). His question is “Can citizenry, public and public sector be engaged online? For example, are we looking at external social media, or external GCconnex type of engagement?”
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters.)
Wayne Wouters: Again, you want to kick off? I’m very happy to have Louise and Daniel here with me today so they can handle the difficult questions. (Laughter).
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian)
Louise Levonian: So there’s certainly just the GCconnex and GCpedia stuff that’s just internal to the government, but we’re also going to be monitoring what’s going on out there on blogs and Twitter that’s not just in the Public Service. I think the question was more specifically about the individual discussions but the third element I was describing, that is actually to reach out to those who are interested in public administration. We’re going to talk to different external parties. We’re going to talk to universities. So there is an external component to the engagement as well.
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters.)
Wayne Wouters: But I think that regarding the question “are we going to go out with social media externally”, I don’t think we plan to do that. For our consultations, we do really want it with the public servants. So that is the approach. And as Louise said, with other organizations out there like the Public Policy Forum or others who have an interest in the Public Service. Also we do plan on having certain consultations with universities and public administration and students in the universities as well. So that’s the strategy at this point.
(View of audience)
Daniel Watson: And if I can add to that, I’m extremely interested in having that discussion with those people who have dedicated their lives and their careers to the advancement of this institution that is so important to Canadians.
(Zoom in on Daniel Watson)
Your imagination, ideas and contributions are extraordinary on a daily basis. It is important that we recognize this moving forward.
I believe we now have a question from a participant in the room. If you could identify yourself. You don’t have to give us your hashtag, (Laughter) but at least your name would be great.
(View of audience)
Question: Thank you very much. So my name is Nikki Fleury. I am a proud public servant. I work at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. And my question for you really relates to building new competencies and new capabilities for the Public Service. So if there’s a group of public servants out there who are already working on collaboration across departments, on a project that demonstrated new and innovative processes, serving to both basically identify challenges that are facing the Public Service right now, and outline solutions to those problems, how do we bring that message and bring it to light for deputy ministers that this is something that’s happening right now? And how do we make sure that we bring this to the right audience for what we’re working on?
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters)
Wayne Wouters: I mean, is this an issue of public… could be anything I guess…
Question: Any type of (inaudible) problem.
(Zoom in on Wayne Wouters)
Wayne Wouters: …which I think is happening. It’s happening today, that if you are working on a particular issue, problem, policy, that you are through our various networks; you are collaborating at the end of the day. So I think generally, as deputies, we know that is occurring. I think we just need to find a way to support this and reinforce it as a way of developing good advice, of solving problems. I think it’s much more difficult when we go outside to do this, and there are lots of issues with that. But I think inside, this is kind of where we’re going to need to go in terms of policy development. There’s no major policy initiative, by which is the responsibility of one deputy and one department. And it’s kind of the same with this. I mean, if you can tap into colleagues in other departments to seek their views and advice, then I think we need to find ways that we can reinforce that. What we all have to understand, then, is that there are times when a public servant reporting up in a department is actually spending a little time working on somebody else’s problem. But that is the future, to me. That is part of collaboration, reaching out. We need to figure how to do this more externally. So I think the best thing, and maybe through this exercise, we’re going to get some really good examples. We’re going to get some good examples about how this is working.
So I encourage each of you to try different methods of working horizontally. I think it’s very important to experiment, to find ways that we can do this.
(View of audience)
Daniel Watson: Louise, any thoughts? Ok.
So back to those joining us via the webcast.
Jean: Yes. We have quite a lot of questions. I believe we have received about 75 in the last 30 seconds – I’m trying to find one that sums a lot of them up.
(Zoom in on Daniel Watson)
Here’s kind of maybe a quick question to answer, directed to the Clerk: What relative weight will be given to individual comments compared to those made through the hierarchy? (Laughter).
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters)
Daniel Watson: Deputies are all taking notes.
(Zoom in on Wayne Wouters)
Wayne Wouters: This is simple! I’m just looking for the best ideas. So that’s where I would go. Whoever can come up with some good, innovative approaches and ideas, that’s what we’re looking for. I suspect it’s going to come from all the sources. It’s going to come through our normal, traditional consultations. I think it’s going to come from discussions we’re going to have with our youth networks. I met the other day with our Aboriginal networks, so we have these horizontal networks we can collaborate with. And then, of course, we have our online tools. So I think we’re just looking for good ideas, because, really at the end of the day, it’s the combination of your perspectives from different parts, from your departments and where you work in the country, or where you work around the world, but you can’t get that necessarily through one source, and I think that’s why we’re trying to tap into all the different sources.
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters)
Louise Levonian: The one thing I’d add is that we’re hoping that we’re going to get a lot of input.
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian)
And you can imagine that there’s going to be a lot of input too. So part of what we’re going to be doing as well is looking for themes, and what are the ideas that keep coming back and back. So that will tell us where the real issues are, and where we need to focus. So part of it is getting really specific, good ideas that are implementable right away, and the other part of it is going to be directional; what are the main themes that are coming out of all the input that we’re receiving?
(View of audience)
Daniel Watson: Okay, over to Stephane and a question from Twitter.
Stéphane: Yes, another question we have here from Vince Pranjivan from CRA: “We haven’t heard yet as to how we are going to engage our important partners, which are the bargaining agents? What’s our plan there?”
Wayne Wouters: Daniel, that’s a question for you, sir.
(Zoom in on Daniel Watson)
Daniel Watson: It’s an excellent question. I approached the National Joint Council the other day. That’s the first step. We obviously work very closely with all of the bargaining agents who always have excellent suggestions regarding the future of the Public Service. Of course, we will also be speaking with directly with employees. We will be consulting groups such as the Federal Youth Network. We will be consulting with the Manager Community as well as the bargaining agents. We expect all to have significant ideas to contribute.
Louise, do you want to add anything to that?
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters, then on Wayne Wouters only)
Wayne Wouters: Listen, we see them as real partners in this. I think our bargaining agents and ourselves, we have a common objective, which is to make the workplace a better workplace for everyone. We’re looking at workplace health. We need to look at all these issues, and to our bargaining agents, this is very, very important. So we do see them very much as partners as we go along.
(View of audience)
Daniel Watson: Okay. We’ll take a question from the room. Could you please introduce yourself at the beginning.
(An audience member gets up to ask a question.)
Question: My name is Imel Kony (sp?), I’m with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In my department I’ve had the opportunity to innovate, to create new products. It’s been amazing. And I work with a team of innovators, but we face constraints, as you know, as public servants, and so as we were talking, as I read the report, I was excited to see the opportunity to innovate even further, but then I’m also cognizant of the boxes we face as public servants. So I wondered, for example, me, I’ve been in the Public Service for 13 years, and we’ve done our best to innovate, and I have a son who just studied Computer Science, first year. So I’m thinking for him, if he compares what innovation is on what we do, he’ll find it really constraining, especially if he wants to be a public servant in 2020. So I was wondering, like, how do we manage expectations and people giving out the ideas, and how do we contain all this in light of the realities we face as public servants?
(The audience member sits down and camera zooms in on Wayne Wouters.)
Wayne Wouters: Well, the title of this initiative is Blueprint 2020, so it’s important to have a vision, but it takes time.
It will take some time for us to take the ideas, and actually begin to change the workplace. We are changing the workplace, I guess, first and foremost, as you say. Now, you’re right. If my kids, who are in their late 20s, early 30s, came in, they would probably feel like yours, which is that this is not always as innovative as we can be. But we’re saying have to be. It’s important. I don’t think my kids will join the Public Service, but we want our kids to join the Public Service. We want them to feel that when they come into the Public Service that they can use the tools and they can approach issues and problems as they are living their lives. Even though we will always be constrained, because you know, we’re not independent corporations. We’re here to advise government and to advise ministers. Our system is somewhat more constrained, but we have to find that space where those who are coming into our system feel that they belong and they’re comfortable, and they’re working kind of like they’re living their lives, which is different than when I started in the Public Service. It’s very different. And we have to understand that. We have to understand what it is, what are those constraints. Some of us who have been in the system probably are sometimes not even aware of the constraints that some of you are living, and this is an opportunity to hear about those.
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters, then on Louise Levonian only)
Louise Levonian: I would like to add something. I mean, part of this whole exercise is to change the mindset of the Public Service as a whole. Part of the principles are opened and networked, innovative, and so part of the process is to come up with an action plan, but again, cliché, but the journey is as important as the destination in this case. Right? We need a common and shared vision. Those are not just words that don’t mean anything. We need to all be thinking about where we want to be and where do we want the Public Service to be, and it sounds like in your organization, there’s a bit of that already happening, but we all need to be doing that. It’s not just about getting ideas and developing the action plan, but it’s about all of us thinking about these principles and how we collectively want to function in that way.
(View of audience)
Daniel Watson: I would just like to provide a small update.
(Zoom in on Daniel Watson)
We are now the top trending Twitter event in Canada. So maybe that’s part of the answer on innovation. We can do it.
So, ok, another question from the room.
(View of audience)
Question: I’m Lauren and I work at NRCan. I just want to start by saying to the Clerk, thank you. I think somebody needed to say it. It’s a huge leap of faith that you’re taking here, and in many ways, it has to start at the top. I’m wondering a little bit if you might be opening the floodgates on this, and that people are just going to go charging through.
(Zoom in on Wayne Wouters, then back to the audience)
You talk about Blueprint 2020 as a report, and then obviously there’ll be some consideration of how you mobilize what goes into that final report, but I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about the potential for Blueprint 2020 to become a movement in and of itself that public servants might own in their own ways, particularly across different regions and in different fields of work. Thank you.
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters, then on Wayne Wouters only)
Wayne Wouters: Yeah, a movement. I hadn’t quite thought of it as a movement. But I do think it could be the start of an ongoing dialogue. I mean, I think it could be a start if we do it right and we’re finding that it’s, as you say, not threatening, that, you know, “Gee, I learned a lot as a deputy from this myself. Maybe I’m going to try this now in my own department, as opposed to doing it across.” And so if you call that a movement, it is. Gee, you know what, we’ve found a different way of maybe working here, and it looked like it really worked well, so now I’m going to do it on this issue or this problem, or I’m going to do it in this region. So hopefully that’s the kind of movement to me that it creates a different way of actually approaching problems and doing our work.
(View of audience and zoom in on Louise Levonian)
Louise Levonian: I’m really, really glad you asked that question, because the way we were kind of talking about it was we were going to have this engagement process, we’re going to get it… we’re going to do an interim report, and then we’re going to do another report, and then there’s going to be the action plan, and it sounded like it actually ended at that point, where we’ve done the action plan, but actually that’s not at all how it’s envisaged. It’s we produce the action plan. That action plan has to be implemented, but we’re hoping that that’s going to be an evolving document, that once you do that part, then how are things changing? What are the next steps? What do we do next? And I think we haven’t gotten to that point where we know we are going to do a Blueprint Action Plan Two? I don’t know, but it’s not foreseen as something that we do and then it ends. It’s got to be an ongoing process.
(View of audience)
Daniel Watson: Twitter?
(Zoom in on Wayne Wouters)
Wayne Wouters: Like you said, the journey is as important as the plan.
Louise Levonian: Destination.
Daniel Watson: Twitter?
Jean: Yes. Our next question is from Tracy Haden. She says, “How do you see the risk-averse culture of the Public Service being addressed in the future?”
Unidentified: (Mumbles) (Laughter)
Wayne Wouters: All right, let me take this on. I’ll make a couple of points, and they’re probably contradictory, but that’s kind of who I am, I guess. But point number one, the nature of our business is that we will always be somewhat risk-averse, because we are, at the end of the day, advisors. I’m not the CEO of Microsoft, and I can’t say, “I’m doing this, I’m doing this.” I have to say, “Prime Minister, I advise that you do this.” So that, by its nature, I think, always makes careful, right? Because we’re not always the decision makers. We’re advisers. We think, “It would be appropriate if you did this, Prime Minister.” So that’s a bit of the nature of who we are. But I know there are constraints on us: transparency, we say, like…transparency with the media, for example.
We have a lot of oversight, so that’s also somewhat constraining. But I guess I’d like to look at, just look what we’ve been doing over the last two or three years. I mean, deficit reduction does focus the mind. But we are innovating. Departments are moving forward with reforms on how they deliver services and programs. We are finding a way to innovate perhaps in spite of some of the constraints we have. We are taking a lot of risks. I know we often talk about these horizontal initiatives like Shared Services Canada and the like. Those are important. Those are big risks. But many departments are doing this now, because they’re forced to look at different ways of doing their business. Maybe you don’t all see it. I kind of see the collectivity, and because I’ve asked deputies to bring some of this forward. So you know, I don’t agree with the premise that we’re risk-averse as an institution. We have risk-averse tendencies, the nature of our business. But within that, I think we are really strong innovators. And by the way, I have an opportunity to compare this. We meet every two years with my counterparts in Great Britain, Australia, the Westminster type, which have that same vertical reporting structure, which is sometimes a constraint on this horizontality we want to go. But when I compare to what Great Britain is doing, New Zealanders, the Irish, Australians, I mean, we’re kind of the vanguard public service. I don’t know what government of the ones I just talked about would try this kind of collaborative exercise using Web 2.0. My sense in talking to my colleagues – I met them about three weeks ago – that, “Boy, you guys are… you’re trying things that we’re just sort of tipping our toe in the ocean,” so to speak. So I guess I always want to make that plug. I think we’re great innovators, and we do take risks.
(View of audience)
Daniel Watson: Louise?
Louise Levonian: I couldn’t say it any better than that.
(Zoom in on Daniel Watson)
Daniel Watson: If we were in the world of “Reach for the Top”, we would be in the Short Snappers. (Laughter) We’ve got one last question, I think, that we can go to. I’ll go to the far microphone here, and then we’re going to have to get close to closing.
(View of audience)
And I would just say before we go that we’re so popular, apparently, on Twitter, that we’re worth spamming. So, there you go.
Wayne Wouters: You’re pretty good! You’ve got all this lingo worked out too. (Laughter).
Daniel Watson: I have teenagers.
Wayne Wouters: Chief human resource officer.
Question: Hello. I’m Roxane Hamel. My last question will be in French. I work at Policy Horizons Canada, and I’m also a student at the Glendon School of International Affairs. So I represent the student community in the government, as well as the future of the Public Service and being here at the Canada School of Public Service, I can’t help but think of my colleagues at the Glendon School of International Affairs who are so bright, who are interested in the Public Service, who would like to help change and innovate, but who are also concerned with the current job prospects in the Public Service.
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters)
I don’t think we try to hide that. We are studying the machinery of government. We would like to help improve things, but it’s difficult, we’re the youth, the best and brightest, full of ideas, but it’s hard to apply those ideas because we are not officially part of the organization.
(View of audience)
So, I’m wondering if Blueprint 2020 would be the perfect occasion in which to seek out the opinions of those exact people – those who are interested and who want to help improve the Public Service. Could we not take advantage and seek out the student population? Maybe that’s an open-ended question. Maybe I should ask what do you think about this situation in general? Could we not profit from it?
(Zoom in on Daniel Watson)
Daniel Watson: I’ll take a first try at answering the question, then I’ll ask the Clerk and Louise if they have anything to add. We need to keep in mind that in a Public Service of more than 200,000 employees we lose 10,000 people a year to retirement and attrition. We hire more people in any given year from outside the Public Service than the size of 98 or 99 percent of Canadian companies. 10,000 people a year is what it takes just to stay still. Wayne, you were very insistent with the deputies that we continue hiring students, that we continue bringing them in. And one of the things that was very important to you was that we find ways to get the creative ideas of students continuing to be in the Public Service, and we not do some of the things that we’ve done in the past, where we’ve kind of closed the doors. Any thoughts on making sure we get that type of creativity from students?
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters, then on Wayne Wouters only)
Wayne Wouters: Well, first and foremost, you know that, as we went through workforce adjustment, our recruitment has gone down, but I insisted that we not stop recruiting, because there’s always areas where we need recruitment. We had fewer students probably last summer than before, because of restraints, but we still got a fair number, and I think it was something like 9,000, and we will bring those in again. These people, new recruits, they’re bringing a different perspective in. One good question is how will we do this over the summer, particularly getting where the summer students are in. We’ll have to think about that. I haven’t thought about that one. Because they’ll kind of have impressions from where they’re coming from. If you look in this room, there’s some people here who probably have recently been students, and they’re now part of our workforce. You have an opportunity, though, through the various networks we have to contribute.
(Zoom in on Louise Levonian and Wayne Wouters)
Louise Levonian: I mean, I would just add one thing. It would be: organize yourselves. Maybe you could assemble a group of students, have those discussions, and then add your comments to our process. That would be most welcomed.
(View of audience)
Wayne Wouters: If you have an idea – submit it.
Daniel Watson: Well, I think actually that’s the perfect way to bring this session to a close. If you’ve got an idea, bring it forward.
(Zoom in on Daniel Watson)
Thank you very much, Clerk, and thank you Louise, for being here today and for all that you have done to contribute to this important initiative.
And I think we’ve all had just a fantastic opportunity here to launch something. This is not the end. This is just the beginning. And so when you leave here, we will encourage you all to look up what is online, to look up what is going on in your departments, and to engage, engage, engage and find a friend and get them to engage too. So thank you very much. (Applause).
(View of audience)