The working group responsible for measuring productivity within the Canadian federal public service has not looked into remote work, says one of its members.
Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labor Congress and one of the group’s seven members, said remote working “is not part of anything we’ve discussed right now” and she doesn’t know if the topic will be discussed. part of the study. .
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which initiated the study, would not say whether the group would consider remote working, although it became a hot topic among officials after many had to return to the office at least three days a day. week of September.
Treasury Board spokesperson Martin Potvin said the group “will explore a wide range of issues and opportunities” based on its members’ areas of expertise.
Maria Gintova, an assistant professor in the political science department at McMaster University, said the group should take remote work into account.
“I think it’s an integral part of any type of productivity study or any type of future human resource planning,” said Gintova, who has researched Ontario’s provincial and federal public service. “This is happening whether we like it or not, and the lack of strategic consideration here is going to… come back and bite.”
Gintova said she wasn’t necessarily surprised the task force wasn’t considering remote work. She pointed to a recent study in the International Public Management Journal that found only eight of Canada’s 56 federal and provincial government departments have conducted “in-depth analyzes of productivity, effectiveness, efficiency or “employee telework equity before implementing their post-pandemic telework policies”. .”
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The study group has held two meetings so far, with several more planned throughout the winter.
A final report containing advice and recommendations is expected to be provided to the President of the Treasury Board by the end of March.
Last year, former Treasury Board President Anita Anand launched the government-led task force.
She said the group would examine issues such as the use of technology, the size of the civil service, public-private sector relations and the general decline in productivity.
The Government of Canada’s website for the initiative states that the study will examine how productivity is measured in other countries and examine how these tactics could be applied in Canada, while exploring areas in which the function public can increase its productivity and by finding ways to improve service delivery. to Canadians.
Members of the task force include former bureaucrats, academics and researchers.
Bruske, who emphasized that the project was started in response to concerns about lagging productivity, said she couldn’t share much information about the group’s work.
She said the company was looking to quantify productivity and the work had not yet reached the solution stage.
“We haven’t picked anything specific,” Bruske said, adding that the group is looking at the entire public service, including crown corporations.
“My role is to ensure that workers’ voices are not lost when we try to find ways to improve public sector productivity. »
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told Radio-Canada on Tuesday that it doesn’t matter if civil servants work from home, as long as their work gets done. He also said the work was not being done within the federal government, although he did not provide details on the productivity of civil servants.
Poilievre asked that officials be given clear tasks and monitored to ensure they are completing their tasks.
He also said he would reduce the size of the federal public service, arguing that Canada has far too many bureaucrats.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published January 26, 2025.
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