It’s all change at the top of major public service organizations right now.
Peter Wallace, Ontario’s top public servant, retired in July following 33 years in the Ontario Public Service (OPS). He was replaced by former deputy minister of finance Steve Orsini.
On Aug. 19, Wayne Wouters, a 37-year public service veteran announced his retirement as the federal Clerk of the Privy Council – Canada’s top public servant. Wouters will be replaced in October by Janice Charette, a senior federal deputy minister. Wouters had been in the job since 2009.
Within 24 hours of Wouters’s announcement, Toronto City Manager Joe Pennachetti announced he was going, too, after serving in the city’s top public-service job since 2008. He has been a senior manager since the early 1990s, predominantly in senior finance jobs, with previous stints with Peel and York regions.
Together, this trio has logged upward of 100 years of public-service experience, with most of it served in the management ranks. Together, they have been responsible for leading about 360,000 public-sector workers.
All three have much in common.
They have had to find a balance between supporting their respective political leaders and leading large and complex public corporations. Each has worked at the sometimes raw coal face between the public service and political worlds. And all share the unique experience of looking at their organization from the crow’s nest – a big-picture view of politics and public administration.
With this also goes the responsibility of dealing with messy issues hidden under the rocks that surface from time to time and need careful management. A big difference among the three jobs is the huge degree of transparency found at the municipal level, where public servants are required to present and defend their policy papers in the bear pit of council meetings.
This accounts for the public sparring between Pennachetti and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on budget issues in front of the cameras at city hall. Pennachetti has been a classic public servant in his support for Ford’s fiscal efficiency measures – publicly defending the mayor’s budget measures. But when Ford’s over-the-top wobbly claims of financial savings triggered the city manager’s fiscal-bullshit detector, he was unafraid to “speak truth to power” and to call the mayor out publicly.
Each leader has faced some big challenges and handled them well. Wallace had to steer the OPS through the unprecedented transparency and toxicity of opposition-driven legislative committee hearings and found himself directly in the line of fire. Wallace, too, has provided the provincial Cabinet with his best advice on budget planning even when this might not have sat well with the audience.
Pennachetti has been a steady hand at city hall in the circus that has characterized the Ford administration. He has supported a fractious council and managed his relationship with both Ford as well as the impressive Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly. The city manager has also done the other big part of his job well – maintaining a spirit of professionalism among city workers at the low points of rudderless municipal government.
On the other hand, in Ottawa, Wouters has served a command-and-control prime minister in the most centrally driven government in the country. Like his provincial and municipal counterparts, Wouters has balanced that with engaging public service leadership and the launch of a major public service renewal plan.
The three mandarins are part of a small and exclusive set, so you might wonder if they talk to each other. They do, but not very often, and it’s usually about money, emergencies and their bosses. There is not much time or interest in shooting the breeze although it is important to establish a dialogue and some trust.
Wallace and Wouters will have talked about federal transfer payments and infrastructure funding. The same sort of issues will have been on the agenda for chats between Wallace and Pennachetti, as well as funding for emergency responses such as during the past winter’s ice storm damage.
Public service leaders also compare notes in advance of meetings and negotiations involving their political leaders. This is also important in followup talks after private meetings between political bosses.
A prime minister and premier will sometimes leave their meeting and report entirely different outcomes to their respective staff and public service leaders – wryly adding that they agreed to let their public servants implement the agreement. This, of course, adds a touch of comedy, but it can leave political egos intact, while public service leaders wander around scratching their heads.
As they settle into their jobs, the three new CEOs should think about comparing notes early, before they are thrown together in managing an issue.

Dean: Wallace, Wouters and Pennachetti make it a hat trick

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