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This article considers the tools and management approaches associated with the 'digital-era' public sector reform, which many observers suggest has supplanted or should supplant previous reforms such as those associated with the New Public Management. This article levers and adapts the Competing Values Framework to categorize various public service reform movements--Traditional Public Administration, New Public Management, Public Value Management, and New Public Governance--and associated value systems and cultures. It argues that not only do these prior reform movements persist as values and repertoires in public service systems, but they are also each variously receiving oxygen from 'digital' as the latest wave of technological innovation affecting societies, markets, and governments. It calls for more systematic empirical work to gauge how digital tools have been affecting the mix and balance of values and repertoires associated with these reform movements in different parts of public service systems in Canada and beyond. Cet article se penche sur les outils et les methodes de gestion associes a la reforme du secteur public a << l'ere numerique >>, qui, selon les dires de nombreux observateurs, a supplante ou devrait supplanter les reformes anterieures comme celles associees a la nouvelle gestion publique. Cet article tire parti du Cadre des Valeurs en Concurrence et l'adapte pour repertorier divers mouvements de reforme de la fonction publique--l'administration publique traditionnelle, la nouvelle gestion publique, la gestion de la valeur publique et la nouvelle gouvernance publique--ainsi que les systemes de valeurs et cultures associes. Nous soutenons que non seulement ces mouvements de reforme anterieurs persistent en tant que valeurs et repertoires dans les systemes de la fonction publique, mais qu'ils recoivent aussi chacun de facon variable l'oxygene du << numerique >> comme la derniere vague d'innovation technologique affectant les societes, les marches et les gouvernements. Cela necessite des travaux empiriques plus systematiques afin de mesurer comment les outils numeriques ont affecte la combinaison et l'equilibre des valeurs et des repertoires associes a ces mouvements de reforme dans differents systemes de la fonction publique au Canada et au-dela., INTRODUCTION 'Digital' is washing through governments and their public service institutions. Many governments have instituted digital service agencies, established open data platforms, adopted social media channels, created innovation labs, and [...]

This September 2022 issue of the journal will appear not long after the conference celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC). IPAC was established [...]

This article considers the implications of the contributions to the special issue on "Re‐Setting the Public Service of Canada." It first reflects on the reform directions proposed by contributors, the extent to which they resonate, and identifies overarching themes. It then considers the complexity of furthering and sustaining reform in large public‐sector systems, arguing that monitoring progress and motivating public servants will challenge governments and central agencies, especially during times of turbulence and disruption, and that the responsibility for monitoring progress should be more fully shared with Parliament and external observers. This will require investments to improve external reporting and support more systematic, applied and collaborative research from universities and think tanks with public servants, which would lead to fostering a new culture of public sector oversight and a larger community of applied researchers addressing public service issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments produce a steady stream of data, reports, and other information to ministers, legislators, and the public, and generate enormous flows of administrative data. In the digital era the flows of information generated by departments and agencies have expanded by orders of magnitude. The paradox, though, is that much of this information is never used, but many decision makers believe there is insufficient information to meet their specific needs at any time. This note focuses on two streams of reporting by departments and agencies in the Government of Canada informed by "open government" principles—the streams of information supplied via the Canada InfoBase and other reporting, and the Management Accountability Framework—and considers if they are accessible and useful. After setting out options for making them both more useful, this note argues it will inform the work of spending reviews, Parliamentary committees, and engagement with experts and citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada has long been a leader in conducting episodic spending reviews to check public spending. However, it has fallen behind many other countries that have taken a more consistent approach relying to a much larger extent on strategic reviews that not only check spending, but also examine the links between spending and policy priorities. To bring greater coherence to review processes, we argue that an embedded system would greatly enhance decision‐makers' ability to make more informed budgetary choices that draw on reliable longitudinal data. There are many ways to organize reviews, and this article provides comparative international experience that could inform discussion on the rationale and benefits of an embedded review system that could be led by the Treasury Board Secretariat. We suggest that there may be a pathway to such implementation that must take into certain preconditions for success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the challenges facing the Canadian Public Service and the need for comprehensive reform. Topics discussed include the slow pace of digital adoption, increasing reliance on consultants, and frustrations with administrative burdens, all amidst ongoing calls for policy renewal and a re-examination of public service capacity.

The fossil representatives of the family Resinacaridae (Acari: Heterostigmata) from the Late Eocene Rovno amber are reviewed. Three new species are described in the genus Resinacarus Vitzthum, namely, R. longipilissp. nov., R. vitzthumisp. nov., and R. striatussp. nov. A new genus and species, Pararesinacarus krczaligen. and sp. nov. are also described. The extant species Pararesinacarus aradii (Krczal) comb. nov. was moved from Resinacarus. All active stages of the extant type species of the genus Resinacarus, R. resinatus Vitzthum, are redescribed based on type material. A key to genera and species of Resinacaridae is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic surely falls into the category of a 'wicked problem.' Governments have not only been trying to respond to immediate public-health demands but also to 'get out in [...]

The female of a new fossil genus and species, Rhombometridium pankowskiorumgen. and sp. nov. (Acari: Trochometridiidae), is described from Cretaceous Kachin amber. The new genus is characterized by the presence of well-developed sporothecae anteriad legs III, each sporotheca containing several ovoid fungal spores. This is the oldest (ca. 100 Mya), evidence of symbiosis between mites and fungi and the first fossil record of the mite family Trochometridiidae. The new genus shares synapomorphies with the family Trochometridiidae (presence of sporothecae between bases of legs III and IV) and Caraboacaridae (rhombic body shape, absence of setae v2, absence of palpal solenidion, palps fused with distinctly widened gnathosomal capsule), and potentially represents a transitional form or a missing link between these two closely related families. We also compare the sporothecae of R. pankowskiorum with those of other heterostigmatic mites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada is in the midst of transforming how it thinks of itself as a country, recovering and rethinking its history, and coming to terms with the damage done to Indigenous [...]

Digital disruptions and opportunities How are digital technologies affecting democratic governance in Canada, and how might the digital age bolster or undermine our public institutions and collective problem-solving capacity in [...]

Ken Kernaghan died on September 14, 2015 at 74 years of age. Ken's struggle was a private one, with only his family and a few colleagues aware of it. But [...]

This special issue of Canadian Public Administration (CPA) is comprised of two parts. The first arose from several papers on universality presented at a themed session of the Social Science [...]