Profession

Public Servant

By Ruth Hubbard
Categories: Political Science
Publisher: Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press
Paperback : 9780776638553, 278 pages, August 2022
Ebook (PDF) : 9780776638560, 278 pages, August 2022
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780776638577, 278 pages, August 2022

Table of contents

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 – Camelot: joining the profession
Treasury Board Secretariat and the Foreign Investment Review Agency/ Investment Canada (1977-1984)
2 – Good luck: the right person in the right place at the right time
Customs and Excise (1988-1992)
3 – Bad luck: the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time
Canada Employment & Immigration Commission, Supply and Service Canada and the Royal Canadian Mint (1992-1994)
4 – Between and rock and a hard place: could it ever have worked?
Public Service Commission of Canada and transition (1994-2000)
Conclusion
Annex 1 – The “Way Forward” proposal of the Public Service Commission
Annex 2 – What Makes a good Deputy Minister?
Glossary, abbreviations & terms

Description

Profession: Public Servant offers glimpses into the federal government’s corridors of power during a decade of profound change and underscores the importance of learning for individuals, groups, and organizations in today’s fast-paced world. It sets out a former deputy minister’s take on the “burden of office” of the role and in the difficulties of staying out of one ditch—excessive concern with safeguarding a few key principles—without sliding into another—being too anxious to please or too tempted to put personal interests first. The story emphasizes the constructive contribution of experience and imagination, especially when it is enriched by on-the-job reflection.