Public policy and operational alignment in light of public service retrenchment – lessons learned from Canada1
| Author | Andrea Rounce,Karine Levasseur |
| Published date | 01 September 2017 |
| Date | 01 September 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852315586300 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2017, Vol. 83(3) 443–462
!The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852315586300
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International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Public policy and operational
alignment in light of public service
retrenchment – lessons learned
from Canada
1
Karine Levasseur
University of Manitoba, Canada
Andrea Rounce
University of Manitoba, Canada
Abstract
This article examines the Strategic and Operating Review (SOR) process used by the
Government of Canada through a strategic management perspective. Initiated by the
Harper government in the 2011 Budget as a one-year process, SOR is expected to
secure savings of CDN$4 billion by 2014–15 from the CDN$80 billion operating budget
of departments. Our article assesses to what degree the strategic operational cuts
support the public policy priorities of the Harper government.
Points for practitioners
Using Canada as a case study to understand how budgetary cuts are handled, this article
provides an opportunity to consider how policy makers align operational cuts with
public policy priorities. While the budget cuts in this case study are operational in
nature, they require direction from central government to support – not undermine
– public policy priorities.
Keywords
budgeting, decision-making, public administration, strategic planning
Introduction
When faced with economic challenges, rising debt, and increased demands from
citizens, Western governments often look to formalized processes to identify
Corresponding author:
Karine Levasseur, Department of Political Studies, 532 Fletcher Argue, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB
R3T 5V5, Canada.
Email: karine.levasseur@umanitoba.ca
activities that can be cut. The global economic crisis of 2008 triggered cutbacks in
government spending and activities in most Western countries. Canada saw an
increase in spending in the early part of the recession, designed to stimulate the
economy, which was then followed by significant restraint in spending. But argu-
ably, Canada’s economy was not impacted by the global recession nearly as sig-
nificantly as its neighbor to the south or other Western countries were. The banking
system is highly regulated, which prevented some of the challenges other govern-
ments addressed, and the federal government provided some stimulus funds to
industry in order to prevent a significant downturn in the economy. Despite
these realities, the federal government led by Conservative Prime Minister
Stephen Harper chose to cut both the size and activity level of government after
providing an economic stimulus package.
Our focus is not on the budget cycle and processes per se. Rather, we are inter-
ested in assessing one component of the process – the Strategic and Operating
Review (SOR), now referred to as the ‘Deficit Reduction Action Plan’
2
– which
was designed to identify areas that could be cut to address the growing federal
deficit. We focus on how the SOR expenditure cuts were identified, who was
involved, who made the final decisions, and whether or not they can be understood
as being ‘strategic planning’ – defined as a ‘thoughtful use of resources to achieve
certain goals’ (Rainey, 2009: 188). While our interest relates broadly to
whether strategic planning informed the cuts, our research question is much
more specific: to what degree do the operational reductions under SOR align
with the public policy priorities of the Harper government? Our interest relates
to the link between public policy and operations. Both are essential in running
government, but while strategy may inform operational cuts, it may not neces-
sarily translate into supporting the public policy issues considered strategically
important by government. We use the term ‘operational’ to relate to the func-
tioning of the public service and its resources, capacity, etc. and we use the term
‘public policy’ to denote the ‘process of multidisciplinary inquiry designed to
create, critically assess, and communicate information that is useful in under-
standing and improving policies’ (Dunn, 2007: 1). While the connection between
operations and public policy is messy, we illustrate that operational reductions
under SOR have implications for broader public policy priorities as established
by the Harper government.
We begin by situating strategic planning within the literature, and identifying
five key areas of assessment for government cuts; then, we contextualize the
Canadian situation and present spending changes from all departments of gov-
ernment, while examining two case studies in greater detail. These case studies
are selected because they represent different public policy fields (science/technol-
ogy policy and labor market policy) and they are housed in different organiza-
tional forms which may further help us to understand budgetary reductions.
Apprenticeship is housed in a classic line department (Employment and Social
Development Canada; ESDC), created by statute for which the Minister has
legal responsibility. Comparatively, science and technology occurs in part within
444 International Review of Administrative Sciences 83(3)
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