How bureaucracy works in Canada

The Canadian bureaucratic system is the side of government that employs employees rather than elected politicians. This system is made up of a huge number of departments, agencies, commissions, committees, boards and corporations. More Canadians work for the federal government than for any other employer in the country. It is estimated that the total number of government employees in Canada is somewhere around 250,000.

Executive departments and deputy ministers

At the top of Canada's bureaucratic pyramid are cabinet (government) departments, sometimes called "ministries" because they are run by ministers. Each department specialises in different areas of responsibility, such as finance, foreign policy, immigration or international trade. There are currently about 30 departments (ministries), although the number tends to decrease and increase as it is very easy under Canadian law to create new departments or reorganize those that already exist.

The cabinet members are all sitting members of parliament, chosen by the prime minister to assist him in running the country. In theory, they are the politicians best qualified for the job, but in reality the type of people the Prime Minister chooses are usually determined more on the basis of who he personally trusts or to ensure diversity in gender, race and other characteristics in public service.

Departments also employ deputy ministers. They hold positions independent of the ministers and are professional bureaucrats selected for their knowledge and experience. Theoretically, the deputy minister's job is to make sure that the rest of the bureaucrats under him carry out the "vision" of the minister and the ruling party. When the minister and the deputy get along, they are capable of many things. But, of course, in practice there is often a lot of contradiction between what a political minister wants and what the bureaucracy thinks is possible or wise. While this can lead to many problems, it is also seen as one of the key checks and balances to tame and control the powers of the Canadian government.

List of all government departments and agencies

Tips and agencies

Since departments (ministries) cannot do everything themselves, most of them delegate authority to a range of small specialised boards, offices and agencies that operate semi-independently. In most cases, these branches deal exclusively with one particular sub-sector of the Cabinet Office's area of responsibility, where demand for public services is particularly high.

Some agencies may focus solely on establishing one specific government service; for example, the Canadian Passport Office, which is administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs, or the Pest Management Agency, which is administered by the Department of Health. In other cases, agencies exist to independently assess the facts and advise the government on specific actions, such as the Canadian Parole Board, which advises the Department of Public Safety, or the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, which works with the Department of Labour.

In most cases, these specialized units have their own unique bureaucracies over which ministers and deputy ministers have only limited control. These so-called 'arm's length relationships' are said to keep the most important types of public services and advice out of excessive political control and interference.

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Crown corporations are formed when the Canadian government decides to do business. They are, as the name implies, public corporations that are run independently of the rest of the federal bureaucracy, but are still ultimately accountable to the government.

The most famous corporations are the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which operates a bunch of TV and radio stations, Canada Post, which delivers mail, and VIA Rail Canada, the national rail service. Lesser-known Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Business Development Bank are responsible for providing financial loans to individuals and businesses.

The Prime Minister appoints executives of Crown corporations, typically CEOs and the board of directors, who hold office for fixed terms to ensure their political independence.

The principle underlying the Crown corporations is that they provide certain basic services to the public that would probably never be offered by the profit-hungry private sector. For example, it is hard to imagine a private corporation being willing to deliver a single letter to a poor town of 300 people in the darkest parts of Canada's upper Arctic, but that is what Canada Post does every day.

At the provincial level, Crown corporations are usually used to provide public services such as electricity, natural gas, public transport and, most famously, health insurance and hospitals. In most cases, the public has to pay for the use of these services, but the contributions they pay go back into the Crown corporations' coffers, giving them a funding base independent of the rest of the government budget.

Privy Council and Office of the Prime Minister

One of the oldest political institutions in Canada, the Queen's Privy Council was originally a group of wise men hired by the colonial governor to help him lead the government.

Today, the Canadian Queen's Privy Council is an incredibly large group of men and women, consisting of about 30 cabinet ministers and about 400 token members, most of whom are former cabinet members who have been made lifelong members by former prime ministers. The full Privy Council almost never meets and almost never does anything.

However, the members of the Privy Council remain important and influential, and the modern Privy Council Office has evolved into the highest-ranking bureaucratic department in Canada. This agency, which employs over 500 people, is responsible for advising and supporting the Prime Minister of Canada, as well as coordinating all other bureaucratic departments on its agenda and under its direction. The head of the Office is known as the administrator of the Privy Council and Cabinet Secretary, and is one of the Prime Minister's closest and most trusted advisers.

Like deputy ministers, the administrator of the Privy Council and its staff must be non-partisan, and their advice and guidance must be largely technocratic — or professional — in nature. However, as prime ministers do not always want such advice, a parallel organisation known as the Prime Minister's Office is steadily growing as an alternative. Unlike the Office of the Privy Council, the staff of the Prime Minister's Office, headed by the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, advises and coordinates the activities of the cabinet and their subordinates mainly on the basis of political strategy, ideology and public image.

How Canadian bureaucrats are appointed

In the old days, there were very few rules governing the distribution of jobs in the Canadian federal bureaucracy. Politicians, for the most part, simply passed on positions to their friends, and as a result, the civil service was filled with party members and lobbyists.

Controversy over this led to the establishment of the Public Service Commission Board, which now does most of the appointing of civil servants. Nominated by the Prime Minister and approved by Parliament, the Public Service Commission Board appoints most of the country's deputy ministers and most other senior bureaucrats responsible for non-cabinet-level government departments and agencies.

By law, the Board must appoint people "on the basis of merit" and their selection "must be free from political influence". Appointed civil servants must also refrain from overt political activity after taking office so as not to jeopardise their party neutrality.

Despite this, there are still many important government positions that continue to be appointed for overtly political reasons. The top jobs in the Canadian bureaucracy, i.e. presidents, directors, chairpersons, board members and other types of executives, remain largely the hands of government to advance their political agendas, while those below them tend to belong to the non-partisan "professional" class.