For more than a decade, senior officials from across Canada's public sector have identified the capacity to “recruit and retain highly‐trained, qualified staff” as central to public service renewal and success in the 21st century. And yet, despite the consensus behind this priority, students of Canadian public administration know little about the strategies and programs that are in place to attract, recruit, retain and transition key public servants in this country. This article tries to address this gap by describing talent management, one approach to getting “the right people in the right place at the right time” currently in use in British Columbia, Canada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. The article concludes with some observations about the present and future of talent management in Canada's public sector.

This article examines the communications function in Canadian government using the results of a pilot study on the governments of Canada, Ontario and the City of Toronto. It first defines what government communication is, explains what activities are included within the function, and then explains how and for what purposes government communications are used. It also provides a high-level overview of how communications within the federal, provincial and municipal governments are managed and administered. The article concludes with some observations about the nature of government communications in Canada and thoughts about future research in the area. Sommaire : Cet article examine la fonction de communication au sein du gouvernement canadien en se fondant sur les résultats d'une étude pilote sur les gouvernements du Canada, de l'Ontario et de la Ville de Toronto. Il définit tout d'abord en quoi consiste la communication gouvernementale, démontre quelles sont les activités que comporte cette fonction, puis explique comment est utilisée la communication gouvernementale et à quelles fins. L'article offre également un aperçu de haut niveau sur la manière dont on gère et administre les communications au sein du gouvernement fédéral et des gouvernements provinciaux et municipaux. En conclusion, l'article présente certaines observations sur la nature de la communication gouvernementale au Canada et des suggestions de recherche future dans le domaine.Canadian governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year trying to understand and communicate with a broad range of internal, domestic and international audiences. They employ thousands of specially trained communications professionals, use a variety of short-, mediumand long-term strategies and processes to establish communications objectives, apply a vast array of tactics (news releases, stakeholder consultations, polling, branding, advertising) to achieve those objectives, and operate highly complex monitoring systems in all media (print, broadcast, electronic) to evaluate whether those objectives are being achieved. The modern communications enterprise pervades every aspect of government activity today, from policy-and decision-making to service delivery, to the point that "the management of the state's communication may even rival Ted Glenn is professor, The Business School, Humber College, Toronto, Ontario.

Why are cabinet decision‐making systems designed the way they are? Traditional approaches to this question stress the importance of representational imperatives (i.e., region, language and gender), the need for managerial capacity and collegiality in complex organizations, or a particular government's fiscal or policy program. While these approaches have merit, they fail to pay sufficient attention to the fact that cabinet decision‐making systems are in the first instance very intimate reflections and extensions of the political instincts, personal aptitudes, and governing experience of first ministers. The author sets out to understand recent reforms to Ontario cabinet decision‐making in precisely this way ‐ how did Premier Michael Harris' sense of his government's mandate, his personal approach to decision‐making, and the practical lessons learned over the course of his government's first mandate influence the design of Ontario's cabinet decision‐making system between 1995 and 1999? This article begins with a short history of Ontario's cabinet decision‐making system, focusing on the period from 1968 to 1995. It then provides details of reforms introduced between 1995 and 1999 and concludes with some thoughts on how Premier Harris' political instincts, personal aptitudes, and governing experience influenced these reforms. Sommaire: Pourquoi les systèmes de prise de décisions du Cabinet sont‐ils conçus comme ils le sont? Les réponses traditionnelles à cette question soulignent l'impor‐tance des impératifs de représentation (c.‐à‐d. la région, la langue et le sexe), le besoin de compétence en matière de gestion et la collégialité dans les organismes complexes, ou bien un programme politique ou budgétaire particulier du gouvernement. Ces approches sont valables, mais elles ne tiennent pas suffisamment compte du fait que les systemes de prise de décisions du Cabinet sont, avant tout, le fruit de reflexions très approfondies et d'instincts politiques, d'aptitudes personnelles, et de l'expérience gouvernementale des premiers ministres. L'auteur de cet article essaie de comprendre, précisément dans ce sens, les récentes réformes en matière de prise de décisions au Cabinet de 1'Ontario: comment est‐ce que l'idée qu'a Michael Harris du mandat de son gouvernement, son approche personnelle face à la prise de décisions, et les leçons pratiques tirées de son premier mandat (1995–1999) ont‐elles influencé la conception du système de prise de décisions du Cabinet de l'Ontario? L'auteur commence par brosser un bref historique du système de prise de décisions du Cabinet de l'Ontario, en se penchant tout particulièrement sur la période allant de 1968 A 1995. Ensuite, il présente en détail les réformes introduites de 1995 à 1999 et conclut par quelques réflexions sur la manière dont les instincts politiques du Premier ministre Harris, ses aptitudes personnelles et son expérience du gouvernement ont influencé ces réformes.

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This chapter aims to clarify the roles that legislatures play in Canadian public policy and its analysis by looking at the institution as it functions in the country’s parliamentary system of government. The chapter begins by describing the four core functions that legislatures perform in Canada’s parliamentary system, namely making government, making government work, making government behave, and making alternative governments. The chapter then explains how and where these functions fit into the public policy process, most significantly in the agenda-setting, implementation and evaluation stages. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on what this fresh perspective on Canadian legislatures and public policy offers for policy analysis in this country.