Canada’s bureaucracy is very good at “self-diagnosis of its problems” but “what it's very bad at is treating those symptoms,” says a retired veteran public servant who spent years working at the centre of government.
Jean-Guy Forgeron, who served as chief of staff to the clerk of the privacy council, and held key roles in other ministries like Fisheries and Oceans, says this means that when it comes to reforming the public service, the initiative must come from “the top.”
“And when I mean the top, I mean the prime minister of Canada,” says Forgeron.
Public service reform is a critical issue at a time when the federal bureaucracy has ballooned, and Ottawa is also being called on to play a key role in initiatives like getting major national infrastructure projects across the finish line.
The federal public service went from about 257,000 employees in 2015 to a peak of almost 368,000 in 2024. It has subsequently fallen. Treasury Board put the number at roughly 345,000 in March 2026, and Ottawa says it aims to drop it to around 330,000 by 2029.
To discuss where the public service is headed, and if it’s well positioned to deliver on the key national projects presently on its radar, Forgeron joins Inside Policy Talks.
On the podcast, he tells Peter Copeland, acting director of domestic policy at MLI, that these staffing numbers are “a symptom of a disease that we should be worried about.”
He said the best way to address this challenge is with a program review like the one carried out in the 1990s by the government of then-prime minister Jean Chrétien. Instead of levelling across-the-board cuts, such a review would focus on determining what government should and should not be doing, says Forgeron. Reductions could then be made accordingly.
