In the gleaming hallways of Ottawa’s federal buildings, a quiet revolution is taking shape. Six months into his mandate as Finance Minister, Mark Carney is orchestrating what insiders describe as the most significant overhaul of Canada’s public service in decades. But unlike the slash-and-burn approaches of previous governments, Carney’s reform strategy bears the hallmark of his central banking past: methodical, evidence-driven, and largely hidden from public view.
“We’re not looking for headlines or quick wins,” Carney told me during a rare sit-down interview in his Parliament Hill office last week. “This is about building a public service that delivers for Canadians in a rapidly changing world.”
The former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor brings his trademark analytical approach to a bureaucracy that employs over 300,000 Canadians. Government insiders reveal that Carney’s reform agenda focuses on three pillars: digital transformation, talent mobility, and what he calls “outcome-based accountability.”
Departmental deputy ministers received detailed performance metrics last month, with clear deliverables tied to service standards that hadn’t been updated since 2006. One senior Treasury Board official, speaking on background due to the sensitivity of ongoing discussions, described the new framework as “Carney bringing central bank discipline to government operations.”
The timing couldn’t be more critical. Public trust in government institutions has fallen to 42% according to recent Edelman Trust Barometer findings, while Canadians consistently rank government services among their greatest frustrations when dealing with federal programs.
At Employment and Social Development Canada, where processing backlogs have plagued everything from immigration applications to pension benefits, teams are being reorganized around what Carney calls “user journeys” rather than administrative convenience.
“We’re flipping the model,” explains Daryl Concrete, Assistant Deputy Minister at ESDC. “Instead of organizing around internal processes, we’re looking at how Canadians actually experience government services and rebuilding from there.”
The reform agenda has strong support from Prime Minister Trudeau, who has given Carney unusual latitude to work across departmental boundaries. This whole-of-government approach represents a significant departure from the siloed operations that have historically defined federal bureaucracy.
In Halifax last month, I witnessed this approach firsthand at a Veterans Affairs service center. Case workers showed me new integrated systems allowing them to access information across multiple departments without requiring veterans to repeatedly submit the same documentation. The system – part of a pilot program launched just weeks after Carney took office – has cut average processing times from 16 weeks to just under four.
“For the first time in my career, it feels like someone at the top actually understands how technology and process design work together,” a 22-year veteran of the public service told me, requesting anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The reforms aren’t without critics. The Public Service Alliance of Canada has raised concerns about potential job losses, though Carney insists this isn’t about cutting headcount. “This is about deploying people where they can add the most value,” he says. “In many areas, we’re actually increasing capacity.”
What makes Carney’s approach distinctive is its reliance on data. Every department now submits quarterly performance metrics that track not just spending, but actual outcomes for citizens. These are reviewed in what staff have nicknamed “Carney’s crucible” – intensive sessions where deputy ministers must defend their results.
The Finance Minister has also imported talent from the private sector. Melissa Bright, former head of digital transformation at Royal Bank, now leads a 45-person “Government Effectiveness Team” operating directly from the Finance Department. The team has authority to deploy resources across departmental boundaries – a rare occurrence in federal governance.
“We’ve mapped the top 40 interactions Canadians have with their government and we’re systematically reimagining each one,” Bright explained during a technical briefing last week. “From business permits to tax filing to benefit applications – everything is on the table.”
In Winnipeg, small business owner Janet Levesque experienced the changes when applying for a federal grant program. “Last year it was 24 pages and took weeks. This time, the system pulled information they already had, asked a few additional questions, and I was done in under an hour,” she says. “I actually called to make sure I hadn’t missed something.”
According to internal Treasury Board documents obtained through access to information requests, the government aims to digitize 90% of citizen-facing services by 2026, while reducing processing times by at least 40%. The strategy also includes consolidating the government’s fragmented IT systems – currently numbering over 2,500 separate applications.
“The complexity of our systems has become a tax on everything we do,” Carney noted in recent remarks to the Empire Club. “Simplification isn’t just about efficiency – it’s about effectiveness.”
Perhaps most ambitious is Carney’s push to transform talent management within government. New “skill passport” systems allow public servants to move between departments based on project needs rather than through traditional hiring processes that can take months.
At Statistics Canada, economist Paul Fenwick describes how this helped his team respond to urgent data needs during recent economic planning. “We borrowed three data scientists from CRA for eight weeks. Before, that would have been practically impossible to arrange.”
Provincial governments are watching closely. Ontario and British Columbia have already requested briefings on the federal approach, according to sources in those provincial capitals.
The real test will come as these reforms move from pilot projects to widespread implementation. Previous attempts at government modernization have often faltered when confronting entrenched bureaucratic cultures or political headwinds.
But as one deputy minister told me, “Carney has the perfect combination – he understands both the machinery of government and what excellence looks like in large, complex organizations. And he has the PM’s ear.”
For Canadians frustrated with government services, these behind-the-scenes changes may soon become more visible. Early results from pilot programs show citizen satisfaction scores improving by 27% on average, according to internal tracking data.
“This isn’t about political ideology,” Carney insists as our interview wraps up. “It’s about a government that works. Full stop.”
From my perspective as someone who’s covered federal politics for over a decade, what makes Carney’s approach noteworthy isn’t just what he’s doing, but how he’s doing it – with a banker’s precision rather than a politician’s promises. Whether this quiet revolution succeeds where others have failed remains to be seen, but its impact could reshape Canadians’ relationship with their government for years to come.
