Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa

A provocative reimagining of the Canadian public service. Public administration in Canada needs to change. A handful of scholars across Canada have been sounding the alarm for years but to no avail. Talented young bureaucrats have been joining the public service with fresh ideas capable of creating real change, but the black hole consumes all. In The Black Hole of Public Administration, experienced public servant Ruth Hubbard and public administration iconoclast Gilles Paquet sound a wake-up call to the federal public service. They lament the lack of “serious play” going on in Canada’s public administration today and map some possible escape plans. They look to a more participatory governance model—“open source” governing or “small g” governance—as a way to liberate our public service from antiquated styles and systems of governing.

In their recognizably rebellious style, Hubbard and Paquet demand that public administration scholars and senior level bureaucrats pull their heads out of the sand and confront the problems of the current system and develop a new system that can address the needs of Canada today.

Published in English.

Nta’tugwaqanminen speaks of the Gespe’gewa’gi Mi’gmaq vision, history, relation to the land, past and present occupation of the territory, as well as their place names and what they reveal in terms of ancient territorial occupation. It speaks of the treaties they agreed to with the British Crown, the respect of these treaties on the part of the Mi’gmaq people and the breach of these by various levels of governments.

It explores the dispossession the Mi’gmaq of Gespe’gewa’gi (Northern New Brunswick and the Gaspé Peninsula) endured while the European settlers illegally occupied and developed the Gaspé Peninsula to their own advantage and the rights and titles the Mi’gmaq people still have on their lands.

Nta’tugwaqanminen provides evidence that the Mi’gmaq of the Gespe’gewa’gi have occupied their territory since time immemorial, were its sole occupants prior to European settlement, and occupied it on a continuous basis.

There are two voices in the book: that of the Mi’gmaq of the Gespe’gewa’gi, including the Elders, as they act as narrators of the collective history, and that of the researchers, who studied this history, including advanced investigation on place names as indicators of migration patterns.

A co-edition with Fernwood Publishing.

Published in French.