Part of the reason the public service got so big under Justin Trudeau is because it took its cues from the man at the top.
Published Jan 24, 2025 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 3 minute read
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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre speaks with reporters in early January. Photo by Adrian Wyld /THE CANADIAN PRESS
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If Pierre Poilievre has any big plans to butcher the federal public service, he will need to be careful in how he approaches his cuts. For while there is ample fat to trim in the bureaucracy, the public service is like an expensive slab of Wagyu, not a cheaper striploin.
Like the expensive Japanese beef, federal departments are marbled with fat. Rare is the case when an entire departmental branch can be excised like the fat along the edge of the striploin. It’s more likely each branch has deadweight and artefacts of defunct programs scattered throughout, making the trimming of waste a labour-intensive exercise.
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And just like the turkey who doesn’t vote for Christmas, no bureaucracy welcomes reform, especially when that reform means shrinkage. Should they form government, the Conservatives will have to expend a lot of political energy on public service reform.
This kind of knowledge and institutional memory will be at a premium in the new government, given how few former ministers remain from the Stephen Harper era. Managing a vast federal department is hard when you know the ropes; it is virtually impossible when you don’t. The asymmetry of knowledge between politician and senior mandarin is never larger than on Day One of any new mandate.
What’s more, the bureaucracy is a master of offering up painful choices on cuts and portraying them as the only option. If Department X is asked for Y millions in cuts, you can be sure that Y will be found from the most essential service the department provides. I can recall the Ottawa-based RCMP Musical Ride being offered up as a cut when the Harper majority government began looking for savings in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Thankfully for Poilievre, Justin Trudeau is starting the process on his way out.
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Recent changes to immigration programs made by the current Liberal government mean the job cuts are already here. Places like Ottawa won’t like it that more than 3,000 positions will be cut at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, but those cuts are a sign of what’s to come. And while the usual suspects — in this case, the Canadian Employment and Immigration Union — will complain, a strong mandate from the Canadian people should help a Poilievre government overcome any stakeholder opposition.
There is always a reason why not to cut — i.e. potential border chaos if Donald Trump follows through on his rhetoric — but ifs, buts and maybes can be dealt with should they arise.
What Poilievre will have to offer up in return in clarity and leadership by example. It is good that the Conservative leader is beginning to put down markers on the work of the public service and how it is to be delivered. A new prime minister doesn’t need to pick any fights with the people who will actually deliver his promises. Poilievre isn’t being dogmatic about coming to the office five days a week as long, he says, as the work is done. And if that hybrid structure requires a bit of monitoring to enforce, then so be it. A ban on social media use by public servants outside of the communications functions would be a boon for office productivity.
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Ultimately, Poilievre will need to offer more specificity on his plans. We know the CBC English service is for the chopping block. If Poilievre has more wholesale chops up his sleeve, the time to communicate them is now. The rest can probably wait, especially if the plan is to actually pick through the Wagyu fat in the public service.
What the Conservatives could also do is lead by example with their ministerial offices. Part of the reason the public service got so big under Trudeau is because it took its cues from the man at the top. A prime minister dragging his RCMP detail to the Bahamas can’t raise an objection to a bureaucracy asking for a little more here and a little more there.
If Poilievre wants lean, he can begin by choosing the leanest cuts for his PMO.
Andrew MacDougall is a London-based communications consultant and ex-director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper.
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