The Idea of the Public Service

• Author: Timothy Hadwen - David Strang - Leonard Marvy - Don Eady
• Profession: Director, Legal Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of Labour - Associate Director, Management Board Secretariat - Solicitor, Ontario Labour Relations Board - Partner, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP
• Pages: 8-18

 

e Idea of the Public Service

“An impartia l and eective public se rvice” is “one of the most honou rable tradi-

tions of our publ ic life.” Government employees work for the elected politicians

to help turn democratica lly determined goa ls into workable laws and policies,

and then to implement those laws and policie s in a neutral and fa ir manner.

ose functions nece ssitate a degree of non-participation in politics a nd a degree

of refraining f rom public speech; and those two aspect s of the public service have

received some judicial attention f rom the Supreme Court of Canad a. But, there

are other aspect s that warrant review.

A. THE PURPOSES OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE

Public serva nts, like all public ocia ls, including those working for Crown a gen-

cies, school boards , hospitals and many other publ ic institutions, a re certain ly

Fraser v. Canada (Publi c Service Sta Relati ons Board), []  S.C.R.  at  and

, per Dicks on J. quoting the MacDonnell C ommittee [Fraser]. See also United Public

Workers of America v. Mitchell,  S. Ct .  () at , per Douglas J.

 Concerning t he constitutional convent ion of impartial ity, see Re OPSEU and Attorney

General for Ontar io, []  S.C.R.  at –, as discus sed in Chapter  at . Concern-

ing limits on sp eech, see Fraser, ibid., and Osborne v. Cana da (Treasury Board), [] 

S.C.R.  at –, a s discussed in Chapte r .

 A primar y source of the descript ion that follows is the extensi ve Canadian politic al

science literatu re on the public service , much of which is listed in the bibl iography.

See especia lly Task Force on Public Service Values a nd Ethics (J. Tait, Chair), A Strong

Foundation: Rep ort of the Task Force on Public Serv ice Values and Ethics (Ot tawa: Cana-

dian Centre for Ma nagement Development, Februar y ) [Tait].

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