Toronto, Thursday, May 5, 2011

When I was asked to speak to you today and to share my vision for Canada as it relates to public service, I was glad to accept.

I have a profound respect for the public service of Canada, and this gives me a wonderful opportunity to convey this message to all of you. If you take away nothing else from my remarks this morning, please remember this: I believe this nation has benefitted richly from a dedicated and selfless company of professional public servants over many decades. Our public service is one Canadian legacy much admired by the rest of the world.

The work of managers in leading our public service is critical. You are responsible for delivering quality advice, programs and services to Canadians, and for projecting and promoting Canadian values and interests on the world stage.

Since my installation last October, I have had the pleasure of working and meeting with professionals from across the public service. As governor general, I could not do my job without the support of public servants.

And indeed, by a curious process of adoption, I am now one of you, at least in part.

Like you, I am a non-elected, non-partisan Canadian public servant. Unlike you, I had never held a “real” job until September 30 of last year. I entered university at 18 and found the place so delightful and enticing that until age 69, I never left.

And yet all of the important things in life I have learned from my children. All five of my children—all daughters—are in the public service. So when I was asked to take this job—and I was deeply honoured to do so—I severed my umbilical cord with the university, and followed my children into the real world.

For my installation as governor general, I entitled my remarks, ‘A Smart and Caring Nation: A Call to Service.’

My intentions were two-fold: first, to create a simple vision that Canadians could easily grasp; and second, to invite all Canadians to become full participants in the realization of that vision.

How appropriate that this morning I have the honour of speaking to a group of women and men who have dedicated their working lives to answering this call, to providing public service.

I am also delighted to join you on this, the closing day of the National Managers’ Community Professional Development Forum, as you discuss future trends in the public sector.

It is an exciting and challenging subject, one of great importance to our country.

As you know, Canada will celebrate its 150^th birthday in 2017. Looking ahead to that day, I have been inviting Canadians to think about ways to build a smarter, more caring nation. With this in mind, I want to pose three questions to you.

What do we want Canada to be like on our 150^th anniversary in six years’ time?

What is the role of the public service in leading us there?

What are the characteristics of the people who will form our public service?

Just as “smart” and “caring” can be building blocks for a national vision of the future, they can also shape the public service of the future.

The “smart” aspect will come from the three A’s: the acquisition, analysis and, above all, wise application of relevant knowledge.

The value of knowledge always depends on its use. How can we be smarter in our caring? Canada can be a global knowledge leader—a smart nation—but our efforts need to be directed towards helping people, including the disaffected and marginalized. That is where the “caring” comes in.

One thing is certain in our efforts to build the country we dream of: the public service will play a key role.

This has always been the case. Allow me to go back almost 400 years to Samuel de Champlain, a public servant and the first governor—in all but name—of what we now call Canada.

Champlain is greatly misunderstood. He has been portrayed in the history books as a great explorer and negatively as a warrior. But as Pulitzer Prize winning historian David Fisher points out in his book Champlain’s Dream, Champlain was really an innovator who dedicated his life to building a society based on the rule of law, diversity, tolerance, inclusiveness and peace.

I believe Champlain’s vision is just as relevant today as it was four centuries ago, and that we can learn many things from him about leadership in times of change and instability.

For example, Champlain was quick to realize his total dependence on the people around him. As an explorer, he meticulously gathered information on the geography and society of the New World from Basque whalers and fishermen and local First Nations. And indeed, the settlement at Port Royal would not have survived its first winter in 1605 were it not for the generous help of its Aboriginal neighbours.

Champlain was also a careful student of earlier attempts at colonization, applying the lessons of history to his own experience. The value he placed on justice and the rule of law gave him the legitimacy to lead through conditions of almost unimaginable hardship.

Champlain was also accountable, both to the King back in France and to those he led. But he also knew that success sometimes called for calculated risks.

As you can see, the challenges of leadership are timeless, though our circumstances in the 21^st century have changed considerably.

In your daily jobs, you are often under tremendous pressure to meet the expectations of senior managers, front-line staff, the Canadians we serve and even the citizens of other countries.

But I think you will also identify with Champlain’s convictions, his long-term vision of a more just, peaceful and prosperous society. This was the dream that propelled him through the immediate challenges of the short term.

In this, I recognize the idealism which led you to dedicate your lives to the public service. This idealism lies at the heart of the smarter, more caring nation we seek.

Several years ago, when I was presidentof the University of Waterloo, the former clerk of the Privy Council, Kevin Lynch, was concerned about the lessening ability of the public service to attract the most qualified students. He asked if we could set up a job fair in the Waterloo area—which we did.

Over the course of two days, 80 deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers came to speak about jobs in the public service and to interview potential candidates. They had the ability to make job offers on the spot.

It was an outstanding success. Over 1,000 students from the University of Waterloo and surrounding schools attended, many of whom had no prior interest in the public service. They reported to me three startling findings:

1. the idealism of serving the public;

2. the variety of careers available; and

3. the speed at which responsibility is given, as well as the breadth of that responsibility.

As you know, that winning combination is a powerful recruitment tool. The challenge now is to empower those public servants to maximize their talents so that they eagerly share in the leadership responsibility.

Today, you will discuss future trends in your profession, the dynamic changes that impact you from both within and without the public service. Allow me to take this opportunity to challenge you to fashion a new definition of professionalism and leadership for the Canadian public service to take us through and beyond our 150^th birthday.

As in Champlain’s time, our success will rest upon respect for law, legitimacy and pluralism, as well as our ability to innovate and to collaborate.

This conference proves that you are already engaged on the subject of leadership, and I would like to commend you for participating. I also want to congratulate the National Managers’ Community on reaching its own ten-year anniversary—it is a wonderful achievement.

The work that each of you does on behalf of all Canadians does not go unnoticed. Managers turn principles and goals into reality, and that is why your efforts are crucial to building a smarter, more caring Canada.

Thank you.