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The federal public service plays a vital role in Canada’s development by helping to shape public policies and deliver programs and services to Canadians. Speaking Truth to Canadians about Their Public Service provides a comprehensive review of the challenges confronting the public service, how the relationship between politicians and career officials has evolved in recent years, and what motivates public servants.
Donald Savoie calls on Canadians and their politicians to consider what they want from their federal public service. Answering this question requires a fresh look at the government’s traditional accountability requirements, how policies are shaped, and how government programs and services are delivered. It also requires a review of ambitious modernization and reform measures launched over the past forty years to make the public service more accommodating to political direction and to improve program delivery. Dividing federal public servants into two groups – poets (those who write policy) and plumbers (those who deliver programs and services) – the book establishes who has the upper hand. This division sheds new light on the theories that seek to explain the attitudes and behaviours of career government officials.
Amid increasingly strong signs that the public service is in need of a reset, Speaking Truth to Canadians about Their Public Service concludes with practical recommendations to assist Canadians and their politicians in defining what they want their public service to be.
"Savoie’s new book is a forensic evaluation of the federal public service. For much of our history, the federal public service was a prized and valued profession – a high calling. More than just a job, it was a vocation. Civil servants are the grease and glue to a well-functioning democracy. We need to get it back. Donald Savoie provides us with a trenchant evaluation, the necessary first step to reform." Policy Magazine
“Donald Savoie draws on his considerable knowledge about public administration to persuasively argue that there are serious problems with the federal government in Canada regardless of who is in power. Savoie is an excellent, engaging writer and delivers information in a succinct manner. Few scholars so artfully master the skill of communicating with clarity.” Alex Marland, author of Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada
"Although Savoie’s work is measured in tone and meticulously researched, a clear sense of 'enough is enough' permeates Speaking Truth to Canadians about Their Public Service. Yet Savoie’s purpose is not to condemn the public service but to defend it, to help it work better and be more accountable." Literary Review of Canada