The Executive and the Bureaucracy

1
The Executive and the Bureaucracy

• Kernaghan and Siegel
• Chapter 15

2
A Review of Former Material

• The Executives include the Non-political
  Executive and the Political Executive
• The term Executive often Includes the Public
  Servants
• Collective Ministerial Responsibility
• Individual Ministerial Responsibility

3
The Key Role of the Deputy Minister

• Minister shares the central stage with their
  Deputies
• Deputies perform advisory and administrative
  roles
• Deputies must be sensitive
• Administrative
• Technical and financial considerations
• Partisan political implications of their advice
  and actions

• Deputies look in three directions
• upward to their political superiors,
• lateral to the administrative peers
• downward to their departmental subordinates

4
Cabinet Committees

• Responsible for helping to coordinate policy and
  programs, to allocate human and financial
  resources to control the public servants
• The existence and responsibilities of Cabinet
  committee's are determined by the Prime Minister
• The significance and sophistication of the
  Cabinet committee system in the federal
  government have increased significantly since the
  late 1930s

5
Cabinet Committees

• In 1993 Kim Campbell had a major reorganization
  of the federal government
• Reduced the number of departments from the 32 to
  25 and eliminated six Cabinet committee's.

• The five remaining Cabinet committee's were the
• Operations,
• Treasury Board/Special Committee of Counsel,
• Economic and Environmental Policy,
• Social Policy
• House Leaders

6
Cabinet Committees

• Jean Chrétien eventually increased the ministry
  to
• 27 ministers who were members of the cabinets
• 8 secretaries of state who were not members of
  Cabinet
• Present Cabinet
• http//www.parl.gc.ca/common/senatorsmembers_cabin
  et.asp?LanguageEParl38Ses1Sectmincur

• There have been four Cabinet committee's
• Economic development
• Social Development Policy
• Special Committee of Council
• Treasury Board
• Ad Hoc Committees (as required)

7
We Have Heard This Before

• The Prime Minister wields substantial power both
  in expenditure and human resource management in
  the organization of the machinery of government.
  He or she is advised by the Clerk of the Privy
  Council and the Secretary to the Cabinet, who is
  supported by the Privy Council Office Machinery
  of Government Secretariat

8
Cabinet Approval and Cabinet Documents

• Policy proposals are formally prepared by
  government departments and presented by a
  Minister to the appropriate Cabinet committee in
  the form of a Memorandum to Cabinet
• Two principles on which the Cabinet approval
  process is based
• All ministers have the right to bring to their
  colleagues proposals for government action in
  their area of policy responsibility
• All ministers should have the opportunity to
  express an informed view within the Cabinet
  process on a proposal for which they will share
  collective responsibility

9
Cabinet Approval and Cabinet Documents

• Cabinet memoranda are usually based on
• extensive research and interdepartmental
  consultations, setting out as concisely as
  possible the issues associated with a particular
  problem or proposal
• The Cabinet memorandum has two parts,
• three-page Ministerial Recommendations MR, which
  contains key information for ministers
• An Analysis section which contains a much longer
  treatment of the same matters covered in the MR
  with the exception of the recommendations and
  politically sensitive matters.

10
Cabinet Approval and Cabinet Documents

• The Cabinet committee makes a recommendation to
  Cabinet in the form of a committee report
• Formal approval takes the form of a record of
  decision that is circulated to all ministers for
  any necessary follow-up
• The record of decision serves as a basis for
  ministers to request approval from the Treasury
  Board Treasury Board Submission and the
  Treasury Board Secretariat for the human and
  financial resources needed to implement approved
  policies
• The decision to approve or reject is provided in
  the form of a "decision letter"

11
Limiting Public Servants Power

• The primary purpose of the several reforms of the
  Cabinet decision making system since the
  mid-1960s has been to enhance the power of
  political executives over public servants in the
  making of public policy
• The attendance of public servants is strictly
  limited at Cabinet committee meetings to ensure
  the predominance of ministers in the making of
  policy decisions

12
Minister
Cabinet
Record Of Decision
Cabinet Committee
Memorandum
Committee
To Cabinet
Report
Briefing for chairperson
Department
Privy Council Office
Finance
Economic Assessment
For Person Years, Contract Authority, etc.
TB Secretariat
Costing Assessment
Minister
Treasury Board
Decision Letter
TB Submission
Department
TB Secretariat
Secretariat Note
13
Example of Mid-term questions

• Give examples of two differences between the
  public and private sectors. (40 words,2)
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ____________________________________
• The Clerk of the Privy Council
• A) Is in charge of the Federal privacy act
• B) Works directly with the Prime Minister to
  organize cabinet
• C) Is the liaison among provincial premiers
• D) All of the above