Lessons of reform in the Ontario Civil Service
| Date | 01 February 1997 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-162X(199702)17:1<27::AID-PAD910>3.0.CO;2-7 |
| Author | PETER BARNES |
| Published date | 01 February 1997 |
Lessons of reform in the Ontario Civil Service
PETER BARNES
KPMG, Canada
SUMMARY
There is a dramatic process of change taking place in the province of Ontario, Canada, which
points to and highlights the need for utter political commitment for change. This is taking
place in an environment that contains within it many of the structural problems being
experienced by member countries. This article reviews the current plans and actions and draws
lessons from Ontario's experience in developing a professional competent public service over a
period of time, during which the expectations of the service have changed radically. (&1997 by
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)
THE CONTEXT
In 1984, when the New Zealand economy nosedived, Ontario was entering a period
of record growth, this within a context of, with a few exceptions, continued healthy
economic growth since the Second World War. People were so con®dent of the
future they felt secure enough to move from of®ce a middle of the road conservative
government that had been in power since 1943. A liberal government was elected
with a mandate to enrich social programmes, income maintenance, education, and
programmes for the aged amongst others. It did this and balanced the budget in
1989±1990 with a provincial debt load of $42.3 billion. Despite this, in what is a
complicated story, the government lost the con®dence of the public during an
historically inept and badly timed campaign and a left of centre NDP government
was elected in 1990.
At this point two things coincided. A government that was pro-labour,
representative of community pressure groups and committed to an expanded role
for government came into power for the ®rst time. Secondly, the boom stopped and
tail spun into negative growth in one year. The government of the day could not turn
its back on its very raison d'e
Ãtre. It opposed privatization, introducing programmes
to reduce and eliminate for pro®t child care for example, and refused to downsize the
public service. It introduced instead a social contract, which cut all civil service
salaries (which were frozen in 1991 and still are) by 5%. It also cut salary budgets
across the broader public sector by 5%. Furthermore, in its ®rst budget in 1991 it
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 17, 27±32 (1997)
CCC 0271±2075/97/010027±06$17.50
&1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Peter Barnes is Director, KPMG Centre for Government Foundation, 191 Hudson Drive, Toronto,
Ontario M4T 2K7, Canada. He was formerly Deputy Minister in the Ontario Government.
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