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Commentary

by David Zusman


A recent visit to England and Scotland reminded me of the many innovations in public sector management taking place around the world. There has been a steady stream of reports on the government’s performance on a number of key policy areas based on performance measures and other metrics used to hold agencies or departments to account.

In Scotland, much of the discussion (aside from speculation on an independence vote) has been directed to the government̵...

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ON THE COVER

The Policy Research Initiative is helping Canada prepare for tomorrow's issues today. Laura Chapman, Executive Director, and her team bring together federal and other governments, think tanks and universities from Canada and beyond to build knowledge, strengthen capacity and promote a spirit of community among researchers and analysts.

Photography: Martin Lipman - martin.lipman@gripandgrinphoto.com

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ONTARIO'S MINISTRY OF ENERGY, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: A VIRTUAL APPROACH TO PUBLIC POLICY
Bryne Purchase Deputy Minister of the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Science, and Technology
While a public organization has, by definition, a strategic public policy mandate, it need not set up a costly and cumbersome infrastructure to achieve it. It can devolve the responsibility for detailed design, development, and delivery to qualified experts in other sectors and provide them with the 'virtual environment' needed to support the achievement of the policy direction.
COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF FEDERAL ADMs: A NEW COLLEGIAL APPROACH
Dr. Hawley Black
High on the list of key good management practices is the need to assist senior managers with every aspect of their career development. A Federal Government initiative called The Collective Management of ADMs designed to do just this has been attracting inquiries and visits from human resource practitioners in governments and private corporations in North America and overseas.
POLICY RESEARCH INITIATIVE:THE STORY OF US
John Dingwall


www.policyresearch.gc.ca
www.recherchepolitique.gc.ca

The Policy Research Initiative (PRI) is the Government of CanadaÕs corporate response to rebuild policy capacity in the wake of the difficult budget cuts that occurred during the early 1990s. It has three primary objectives: to advance knowledge; to build research capacity; and to promote a spirit of community among researchers and analysts. The last objective is in response to the growing need for integrated policy development and execution  a goal that is hampered by departmental silos.
PRI: HORIZONTAL PROJECTS
John Dingwall
In the summer of 2000, the Policy Research Initiative (PRI) presented Deputy Ministers with a new approach to managing horizontal research. Its key aspects included: a more direct involvement for Deputy Ministers and senior officials from across departments, with enhanced support from the PRI; renewed project focus with a timetable for delivering results; flexibility to address the specifics of each issue; and the continual evolution and strategic harvesting of research projects.
(Click here for FRENCH -- pdf files).
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: FROM E-MAIL TO E-GOVERNMENT
Niall Sinclair Director of Information Management in the Chief Information Officer Branch of the federal Treasury Board Secretariat.
Futurists tell us that profound change results when a society's underlying science or mythology changes. Some call these 'breakpoints', moments when profound shifts of mind and thinking lead to changes in our behavioural patterns. We are currently experiencing such a shift and we are changing the very nature of our work. Accompanying this is a new level of stress engendered by the need to reconcile our emerging understanding of how things will work in our future world with the way they currently work in a world we created from a very different set of assumptions and understanding.
ONTARIO CUTS THE RED TAPE
Scot Weeres and Tim Paleczny of the Red tape Secretariat
As little as five years ago, registering a new business in Ontario took six to eight weeks through only one government location. For the 50% of applicants rejected during their first try, the time required increased to 12-16 weeks. Business owners had to go to at least four separate ministries for services related to a new business start-up. Today, Ontario Business Connects, an electronic business registration system, has reduced the time for registering a new business to as little as 20 minutes. >>Full Story
CCMD's NEW RESOURCES
Stephen Hill and Elizabeth Moore are on the Secretariat of CCMD's Roundtables
Part one, in CanGovExec (2001, #2), outlined new management resources created by the Action-Research Roundtables on the Social Union Framework Agreement and the Learning Organization. The second half of this series describes the tools developed by CCMD's Roundtables on the Management of Horizontal Initiatives and Risk Management.
ELECTRONIC HEALTH INFORMATION
William J. Pascal Director General, Office of Health and the Information Highway, Director General, Office of Health and the Information Highway, Information Analysis and Connectivity Branch, Health Canada
Over the past 40 years, Canada's publicly administered health care system was a defining feature of Canadian identity. This united Canadians across provincial, territorial, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic boundaries. During this period, they remained confident that high-quality care would be there for them if they fell ill or had an accident. More recently, a large number of Canadians have been questioning the current and future state of the system they hold so dear.