There are 29 deputy ministers in Ontario’s Public Service (OPS), each working alongside a cabinet minister in running government ministries.

This is the senior management team of the 65,000-member OPS, led by Peter Wallace, the Cabinet Secretary and the Premier’s deputy minister.

These are big jobs. Some $115 billion is spent by government ministries every year through myriad programs and transfers. Premiers and ministers rely on DMs for support in making and implementing policy, delivering high-quality services, managing issues and maintaining a competent workforce.

Little is known about these jobs outside government but they are among the most complex in the country.

Their accountabilities are uniquely complex: DMs work for their minister, their performance is assessed by the Cabinet Secretary, and they are appointed through orders-in-council on the recommendation of the Premier.

They must navigate complex political relationships - between ministers on a shared policy file; and between their minister’s office and the Premier’s Office on touchy issues such as which agenda items are really moving forward or are stalled in neutral.

The issues don’t come any bigger: Tackling the deficit, reforming social assistance, protecting the environment, transforming the health system, and infrastructure planning, to name just a few.

Stakeholders are powerful: Doctors and teachers are no pushovers, nor are parents advocating for improved services for autistic children, vulnerable individuals denied access to expensive drugs, the horse racing industry … and so on.

Ministries are highly diverse: They range from the ministry of health, with several thousand employees and a budget of $48 billion, to smaller ministries such as energy, with a couple of hundred staff and budgets in the low millions. But given the controversies associated with these ministries, it’s a good bet that neither the health nor energy DM is sleeping well these days.

There is no deputy minister school: Most DMs learn on the job – and in a hurry. Some don't make it and move on fairly quickly. DMs are wildly underpaid compared to their peers in other sectors. But they are routinely first to be sent to the pay-freeze stocks as an example to others.

The most successful transitions into DM jobs seem to be made by municipal CEOs. Municipal government is a highly transparent and rough-and-tumble mix of political theatre and public administration - a great training ground for deputy ministers.

QP Briefing asked three former DMs to look back on their jobs:

Michael Fenn is a former city manager of Burlington and CEO of Hamilton-Wentworth Region. He is now a senior advisor at Strategy Corp. Fenn served as DM at the ministries of municipal affairs and housing, and community safety. Here is his take on the move to the province:

“While the position of Deputy Minister probably commanded more respect and formal deference than the position of city manager, the real discretionary authority was initially considerably less. Having been a public sector executive for a decade, that was quite a surprise. In ministries, a lot of decisions were effectively made by political staff in the ministry and especially, by the Premier’s Office, or by central agencies of one sort or another.

"As a municipal chief executive, I was … the ‘Chief Policy Advisor’ to Council (coordinating the input of all senior executives), the final author of the municipal budget (in concert with the municipal treasurer, and without political involvement) and the primary strategist for human resources policy, information technology and collective bargaining.

"At the province, virtually all those roles were either beyond my control, or shared with a large and diffuse audience that was difficult to influence. There was much pro-forma accountability, but a very limited opportunity to act unilaterally to establish or achieve objectives, although with time, that constraint was overcome to some extent by ‘knowing the system’.

“The obverse of my complaints about too many ‘cooks’ in the policy and management ‘kitchen’ is that, over time, the ‘fun’ was in navigating the labyrinthine decision-making processes to effect good quality, evidence-supported policy and program delivery.”

What are the biggest challenges and rewards of the DM role? What are the attributes of successful DMs?

Michele Noble served as Secretary of Management Board of cabinet and as DM at the ministries of the solicitor general, correctional services, and revenue.

“Keeping a focus on priorities is essential, given the myriad demands of the job [and] effectively bridging between the minister and staff, the ministry staff and the central agencies to achieve productive working relationships and outcomes.

“The most rewarding aspects of the job are in being part of an effort that makes a different for the province and citizens … and seeing the success and pride of individuals and teams you have worked with.”

Key DM attributes: “Comfort with ambiguity; an ability to ‘play in traffic’; the capacity to function at both the strategic level - anticipating issues and challenges so that the organization is positioned to respond - and also to attend to monitoring of operations and implementation; a commitment to public service values and … a sense of humour!"

Judith Wright served as DM in the ministries of health promotion and sport, children and youth services, and intergovernmental affairs.

“One of the toughest parts of the job is mastering the level of sophistication DMs need to manage decisions with stakeholders - particularly delivery agents - and particularly given the 24/7 news cycle and ‘Twittersphere’. It is an 'art' to balance the interests of stakeholders, with the public good, with political direction and get to the right point. This process is not made any easier by the continuing decline in credibility of the political class and the public service ...

“The fun part of the job: you are working on things that matter to people and to their quality of life; and on the whole, you are working with really smart people.

“Personal attributes: you absolutely need a love of complexity - possibly a deep understanding of chaos theory - and be able to live cheerfully with ambiguity.”

Michael Fenn: “The municipal world and other positions I held were often very geographically or functionally narrow, or even limited. (The world doesn’t end at the city limits and there’s more to life than public transit). As deputy minister, I could leave a mark on the whole province and contribute to reforms that improved things for a generation."

“To be successful, a deputy minister has to derive satisfaction from seeing ideas take shape and result in solutions, without expecting any credit for those results. A deputy minister needs to be patient with a decision-making process that can be slow, unpredictable, diffuse and risk-averse – and which is frequently more concerned with the near-term and the initial media/stakeholder reaction than in seeing the merits of proposals win over the skeptics with results. “

The last word goes to Sir Humprey Appleby, permanent secretary to the minister, in the BBC comedy series Yes Minister:

“Minister, I am neither pro- nor anti- anything. I am merely a humble vessel into which ministers pour the fruits of their deliberations.”

The art of being a deputy minister

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