Lori Turnbull is director and an associate professor at the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University.
The Liberal government is in a standoff with the federal public service, one that could lead to strike action as early as the spring. The order for employees to return to work in the office from Treasury Board Minister Mona Fortier, combined with the growing affordability crisis, has put significant strain on this relationship. This scenario is somewhat off-brand for the Liberals, who are often thought to be more sympathetic to and aligned with the bureaucracy than the Conservatives.
The relationship between the Liberals and the public service suffered an additional setback recently as government outsourcing has taken on significant political salience. Research at Carleton University shows that during the Liberals’ tenure, the amount of money spent on contracts has gone up. Big firms such as McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers are named as the beneficiaries, with no less than $22.2-billion spent on such external contracts in 2021-22 alone. Recent reporting has also shown that the consultancy Accenture received at least $61-million to deliver the main pandemic loan program for businesses.
The Liberals’ tendency to contract out has opened a space for other political parties, including the NDP, to come to the defence of the public service. NDP member of Parliament Matthew Green said: “Canada has a strong public service who can do this work at a fraction of the cost, so there’s no reason for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to choose to hand buckets of money to his billionaire CEO friends instead.” Despite the political juiciness of big contracts to firms with Liberal ties (more on this later), is there really anything to see here? What should Canadians and their elected representatives be worried about?
Some with considerable knowledge of the issue, including former clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, shrug their shoulders. He explains that, when government lacks a specific expertise in a key area, “it makes perfect sense to rent that expertise from outside from time to time.” This observation raises an important question: If the public service lacks an important literacy or skill set, why is this the case? Is it because governments have neglected the public service by failing to invest in its capacity and are now forced to look elsewhere for support? Is this a mess of their own making?
If yes, this is a major problem given that the purpose of the public service is to give frank advice to the elected government in a way that prioritizes the public interest over anything else. With no disrespect to any firms involved, it makes sense that a private firm might have a certain ideology or value system that could direct the tone and substance of their advice to government. Companies with values that match those of the government might be more likely to tell politicians what they want to hear – and what will get them another contract.
If this external advice is becoming louder and more sought after than public service advice, this is a problem that needs fixing because it is a disservice to Canadians. Further, the lack of transparency around value for money is a more significant concern than the amount of money spent. Some of these contracts have been nothing but a headache for the government. The work to develop the ArriveCan app, for example, was contracted out to the tune of $8.3-million. The app has been widely panned as a waste of money.
The parliamentary committee studying this matter has a significant role to play in holding the government to account so that the truth can be known about whether, when and how external expertise should be brought in and for what cost. It is in the public interest for the committee to take this seriously as a critical issue facing Canadians and the public service. But instead of following the money and asking real questions, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has taken pains to use language that reminds voters of the infamous sponsorship scandal, when audits revealed that advertising companies with Liberal ties were paid for little or no work. He and other opposition members have also tried desperately to create a narrative that Justin Trudeau is using government contracts to flow money to his alleged “friend” Dominic Barton, a former global managing partner at McKinsey. But this is cheap political theatre and a waste of everyone’s time.
To be fair, Mr. Trudeau comes by some of this mudslinging honestly, given that most of his ethical quagmires (and there are several) have involved his blind spot with respect to mixing government business with his social life. (The WE Charity scandal and the Aga Khan holiday come to mind.) But the overall issue of the role of the public service and the value of external advice is important and urgent enough to warrant earnest questions and answers, whether such an exchange makes headlines or not.