The second edition of my new series of quick, lightly-edited, stream of consciousness, semi-regular/weekly blog posts of what I’m thinking that week.
This week, I was in Montreal for the All In Conference — an event highlighting the Canadian AI ecosystem and the technology’s impact on society. At the conference, Canada’s Minister of AI and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon announced a framework for pursuing digital sovereignty in Canada. He also announced that the Government of Canada will refresh its national AI strategy in the coming months. For more information, here’s an article. I can’t speak too much, since I am in the Canadian public service working on AI policy (albeit from a different angle), but a few sessions from this week stood out to me.
There was one particular session on “AI and the Future of Public Administration,” on how government can be more innovative and adopt AI to improve the quality of government services and enhance the productivity of public servants. On the panel, the Chief Information Officer of Canada and the Chief Data Officer of Employment and Social Development Canada highlighted the innovative work that the GC was pursuing. Many parts of the GC are doing really incredible things with AI and technology that are improving service delivery for Canadians. And my Treasury Board Secretariat colleagues are making sure that the GC strikes the right balance between guardrails and innovation. I should also say that representatives from a research institute and an advocacy group were also on the panel. It was a… “passionate” discussion about the role of the public service, as well as overcoming trust gaps of the Canadian public in the adoption and increased use of AI. To them, the public service is too slow to adopt AI; that we are not innovative enough; that the system is fundamentally flawed; that if the public service just adopted AI, Canadians would suddenly trust the technology and see its benefits; and that the solutions are apparent and easy to implement.
What really frustrates me about conversations like these is hearing non-public servants who have never worked in government lecture on why the public service is so wrong and to give prescriptions on how to fix government. There’s often this view that public servants are lazy and that someone from outside government should get in there and “disrupt” everything. That if the government ran more like a business or start-up, everything would be much better. I vehemently disagree. Having worked in the public service for close to half a decade now, I can confidently say that public servants are dedicated to serving Canadians and always working hard under significant pressure to deliver. In an increasingly complex world with geopolitical disruption and technological transformation, public servants are being asked to deliver rapid, perfect results with less resources. I know so many public servants who are burnt out and exhausted, working countless hours to get the job done. This past year, my team and I worked tirelessly to deliver on the government’s policy priorities for Canada’s G7 Presidency. It was not easy with challenging political, geopolitical, and geoeconomic shifts that are fundamentally changing Canadian society and the broader international order. All while our lives did not stop and our health took a beating. One morning, I woke up and my eye could not stop twitching. My eyesight could not focus on anything properly and I thought my vision was permanently damaged. I went to an optometrist and luckily it went away after a day, but he did confirm that the problem was exacerbated by stress. All that to say that while I think it’s fair to criticize the policy decisions made by the government, it is completely unfair to hear non-public servants bashing the work that we do and implying that public servants are inherently flawed.
On the VIA rail train home from Montreal, I coincidentally sat next to one of the panelists from that session. We got to talking about the discussion and the implications for the public service. We talked about how there are legitimate criticisms about the GC not being forward thinking and being too risk averse. Technological change is here, whether we like it or not. This is a time of opportunity — for the GC to embrace the benefits of technology to improve the way we work and better deliver for the Canadians that we serve. And yes, there are bigger questions around public service reform, talent recruitment and retention, workforce development, decision-making frameworks, etc. But we agreed that it’s so frustrating to hear from outsiders who have never spent a day in government that they have all the answers and that it’s so easy to spur a culture change within the public service.
There’s a reason why the public service is so risk averse and less experimental than we should be — Canadians expect us to be perfect and to get it right the first time. The tolerance for failure is very low. Government isn’t like a start-up where you can fail and iterate until you succeed. The pressure to deliver is too high to get things wrong. Also, regulations exist for a reason — they’re not just “barriers” or “obstacles”. They’ve been implemented in order to protect from situations that go awry and create real damage. As just one example, the Privacy Act (which I concede is too old to keep up to today’s technology) is meant to protect government misuse (or even abuse) of Canadians’ sensitive personal information. It’s not just some flimsy thing that we should just throw away for innovation for innovation’s sake. And when you have smart people trying to change the system from within — and I’m blessed to be able to call many of them my friends — there is a lack of support from senior management and it feels like we’re just spinning our wheels and not getting anywhere. We end up losing too many of these talented people who feel like they can’t get anything done in the public service (and honestly, sometimes I think about whether I can be more effective in affecting change from outside of government).
I’ve honestly enjoyed my time working in government. I’m proud to be a public servant, working alongside other talented and special people who are dedicated to serving Canadians. While I think it’s fair to point out the issues in the public service and offer constructive solutions on how to improve, I think it’s unfair to lecture and pretend that there are easy solutions to complex problems — especially if you’ve never served in government.
Other thoughts:
- I always enjoy visiting Montreal. Other than Toronto (being my hometown), Montreal is my favourite Canadian city. There’s so much arts and culture and good food and good drinks — and most importantly, good friends. Glad to get the chance to see some lovely friends and hang out at some cool bars. It’s probably the final week where you can comfortably hang out on a rooftop patio bar without it being freezing cold.
- I took VIA Rail to and from Montreal and I love it. Taking the train is a lot of fun. Sure, I like driving and blasting my music or yapping with Rebecca. But the train is so easy and you don’t have to worry about anything for that time you’re travelling. I would just say that if you’re on a tight schedule and you have to be somewhere on time, VIA rail isn’t always the best option. VIA trains often run on CN railway tracks, and have to stop and wait for CN freight trains who have priority access. Delays are normal on VIA trains — it’s just part of the deal. If you bake in about an hour or two between arrival time and your next appointment, it’s really a fun way to travel. Also, train food is surprisingly very good! Don’t expect Michelin star quality, but I’ve always found train food to be much tastier than airplane food.
