Apparently, a change of government brings with it a change in government. Who could have predicted ?
The Saskatchewan Party government is shaking up the civil service this week, giving pink slips to eight deputy ministers.
That’s about half of the deputy ministers in the provincial civil service. Deputy ministers are the senior civil servants in the provincial departments who work closely with the ministers, who are politicians.
After the NDP took power in 1991, many of the deputies received their walking papers.
Now it’s the Saskatchewan Party’s turn to put their stamp on the civil service. One of the changes is to refer to government departments as ministries.
Among those leaving is John Wright, the former president of SaskPower and former finance and health deputy who had been a major part of the public service for decades.
I heard of Wright’s dismissal last night from a private source. He was well liked in the department. However, as not a lot about health service delivery is well liked in the province, it may have something to do with the decision. Old dogs, new tricks and whatnot. But that’s a guess.
This is pretty standard stuff for a change in government anywhere in Canada these days. Most DM’s serve at the privilege of the party in power rather than ascending through the ranks of the public service. And in many ways it makes sense to change them up, especially if the previous DM was a patronage appointment. Ministers need to be able trust that they have a good organizational head in their respective ministries. Beyond that though, the public service should not be politicized at all. That’s idealistic and untrue in many cases, but it should always be a goal for governments to strive for.
It is not a very good thing when a change in politicians leads to a change in the civil service, even of its chiefs. Of course it is quite likely that the senior civil servants have been politicised; the CBC goes on to say, “After the NDP took power in 1991, many of the deputies received their walking papers.” A bad precedent.
Now if only Manitoba could change our communist party.
all I can say is thank gawd the Dippers are not in power here in BC right now or else these fools would all be heading west trying to get another lip-lock on our public teat.
They have sucked enough blood outta Canadian taxpayers
Allan…. Get ready for a tax hike in Manitoba. Where do you think these ex-deputy ministers can find another socialist regime to run? Doubt they have the requisite Spanish for Cuba and/or Venezuela.
It would be very interesting to see where these highly skilled people end up. They have been operating at a very high management level and the Saskatchewan and western (BC and Alberta ) booms have created a shortage of management talent. If they truly had/have the skills to qualify them for the responsibilities of the DM roles they held there should be a bidding war for their services.
Likewise it would be interesting to see where the new deputy ministers are coming from and why and how they left the executive positions in the private sector that they should be holding, or have the skills to hold.
There will be change when the new government cleans out the key people bureaucracy which where stacked with dipper network nepotism.
A good clean out needs to go right down to the dog catcher in any degenerate socialist administration…frick I bet the Sask Dipps were running out of relatives to hire after their term in power.
Speaking with some experience regarding Ontario, in the good old days, the Deputy Minister used to be where the politics ended…he/she was the interface between the professional public service and the politicians.
Nowadays, however, “politics” has infiltrated down to below the middle management layer in the public service…folks get promoted on the basis of how well they can maneouver “politically”, instead of on their knowledge or technical abilities.
By “politics”, I don’t mean partisan politics, but actions that suit the agenda of the politician in power, not the technical requirements of their work.
So, the firing of Deputy Ministers is nothing and should be considered routine.
Did you say Did you say
“The Saskatchewan Party government fired eight deputy ministers and hired some new ones, putting its stamp on the civil service.The Saskatchewan Party government fired eight deputy ministers and hired some new ones, putting its stamp on the civil service.”
Or is there an echo in here? :0)
Or is there an echo in here? :0)
To clean out the embedded socialists the Sask. Party will need to cut much deeper. Deputy Ministers promote their own kind into senior government positions. Those layers of management need to be cleaned out as well if any thing is to change.
No big deal about changing DM’s…every party does it when they’re elected. You often lose a fair degree of institutional expertise and memory, but that’s the price at serving at the pleasure of the premier…
The NDP are deeply embedded in the civil service and very much deeper housecleaning is required to remove all of the NDP hacks that the people of Saskatchewan have had to endure for 16 years. Let them be gone! Finally! At last! I hope they all find political hack jobs in the Manitoba Civil Service te only place their qualifications will be truly appreciated.
Ricardo you’re right, they can come join this socialist paradise known as “Manitoba”.
Looks like the Saskabush Party is putting its stamp on the civil service.
I doubt the DM’s will be high on the hire list of any private corporation, especially as they’re socialist appointees. What skills would they have that would attract profit motivated corporations?They’re mostly drones who’ve never had to adhere to the budget, and suffer no consequences when they fail. The taxpayer provides a bottomless money pit for them to operate with.
Look for them to be hired by crowns in sympathetic administrations. When we had the NDP government here in B.C., it seemed like every week the press would announce the hiring of another NDP hack that had lost their job when that Party was booted from office. Ontario blessed us with many of these winners.
Political hacks infiltrate almost every level of public services such as Sask Tel. There is a lot of “This guy supported the party and he needs a job so place him in such a such spot.” This is one of the great downfalls of Canadian politics and why governments should not own corporations, like the CBC for example. Read “The Friendly Dictator” for further insight into the unsightly power a governing party wields with patronage appointments.
John Wright was hated by SaskPower’s rank and file employees, and to say that he was liked within the Dept. of Health is a significant exxageration.
Without getting into a lot of details…let’s just say he got a lot more than he deserved, and there’s a lot of people who would have preferred that he be kicked to the curb without severance.
Thanks John – didn’t notice the hiccup. I posted it and then had to head to town.
All political parties politicize the service to some degree. However, nobody does it quite like the Dippers. It is quite possible that some of those let go in Saskatchewan will find their way into senior civil service positions in Manitoba. Doer Dippers are not as bad for politicizing the service as previous Dipper administrations, but it`s still going on. I will be watching for names like John Wright, Bill Craik, Bonnie Durnford etc to show up here in Winnipeg and will post what I learn.
I have known and worked with J Wright for many years, yes he was always liked by the people who could help him climb or who were climbing themselves, ask those a few rungs down, who are not so political and you will find quite a different set of expressions used to describe him.
Maybe the brainiacs just fired could help Obama, Hillary and Silky “fix” healthcare, social security and immigration stateside, just like they did in Sask [new Home of Riders and Grey Cup.]
/sarc off
“I doubt the DM’s will be high on the hire list of any private corporation, especially as they’re socialist appointees. What skills would they have that would attract profit motivated corporations?They’re mostly drones who’ve never had to adhere to the budget, and suffer no consequences when they fail. The taxpayer provides a bottomless money pit for them to operate with.
Look for them to be hired by crowns in sympathetic administrations. When we had the NDP government here in B.C., it seemed like every week the press would announce the hiring of another NDP hack that had lost their job when that Party was booted from office. Ontario blessed us with many of these winners.”
Meh..not really true at all. The fact is appointment or not/party stripes aside, you *usually* don’t get to be a DM without an above average degree of motivation, drive, experience, and intelligence. I’m sure they’ll all be taken care of quite well in both the public and private spheres. Corporations that have a lot of interfacing with government love to pick up experienced civil servants.
The public service gets a bad rap in my opinion. I don’t work for government, but a lot those that I know who do, are hard working, committed people that are devoted to bettering the province on behalf of the citizens they live with. Even if they have political biases I would say that all of those I know understand that their position requires them to remain objective and speak truth to power.
A well deserved purge of commies, layabouts and sychophants. Bravo!
Only 8?
They shouldhave demanded the resignations of all the DMs and more importantly, the ADMs immediately and then process the resignations now or later. To assume that these people aren’t political/patronage appointments is folly.
“The public service gets a bad rap in my opinion. I don’t work for government, but a lot those that I know who do, are hard working, committed people that are devoted to bettering the province on behalf of the citizens they live with. Even if they have political biases I would say that all of those I know understand that their position requires them to remain objective and speak truth to power.”
Thats just a load of crap.
Civil servants(bureaucrats) are mostly “its not my job” and “CYA” people. Want examples. How many hours ya got. For starters lets look at the latest tasering at the Vancouver Airport.Where were the bureaucrats there. Not one of those lazy ass “not my job” “CYA” bureucrats would help that poor mother find her son. Why? Because it “wasn’t their job” and they we too f*cken lazy to help.
Anyone-ANYONE was has ever had any dealing with bureaucrats probably has numerous examples of their uncaring attitude.
Horny Toad
Says Steve: “The public service gets a bad rap in my opinion. I don’t work for government, but a lot those that I know who do, are hard working, committed people that are devoted to bettering the province on behalf of the citizens they live with.”
Steve, I HAVE worked for the government and I can attest to your statement…but I would hazard a guess that the attitude you describe covers only about 25% of the civil service. Another 10-25% do PRACTICALLY NO WORK AT ALL…they just hang around offices and chat or read the newspaper or go for a walk, with maybe an hour or so per day spent doing some poor quality work.
The rest are generally well-meaning but not terribly competent or intelligent. They’re in public service for a reason…they couldn’t survive in the private sector. I would estimate that 50-75% of the public servants are CYA folks and “not my job” folks…but they’re still generally well-meaning.
to clean out socialists from government would require the dismissal of all employees who are memembers of the unions. then prohibiting union membership in the public service.
eeyore:
I too have worked and dealt with the Public service at all three levels and I echo you analysis. However many large corps have similar employee work ethic demos perhaps not quite as bad but not far off – being unionized can have a large bearing on it not surprisingly.
I don’t get it… How does anyone justify making such an absolutely politically biased and absurd comment as: “yay, ’bout time those layabout, no good, NDP political hacks are being tossed out on their arse!”, when the reality is, that they are about to be replaced with a bunch of ‘layabout, no good, ‘Conservative’ political hacks’…
LOL! That’s just the nature of government… 10% of it will always be plundered by the party in power to give to its faithful… and there will always be political hacks and hangers on. Get real.
I know some of the people on the way out and some of the people on the way in, and IMHO they are ALL good Saskatchewan people, and some very talented and bright people.
Cheers to Dale getting Enterprise Sask… this is perhaps the best appointment Brad could make…
Cheers!
Leto
Indeed L, within SaskPower, Wright turned a blind eye to a lot of malfeasance and misconduct. He was one of the players at the CIC that was peripherally involved with Jack Messer’s $300k severance package when it was fairly clear that misconduct was at the root of the Channel Lake fiasco. He failed to discipline an exec at SaskPower that was very abusive towards staff (an exec that later had to be fired at considerable expense to taxpayers.).
The new government has a lot of messes, if not created by John Wright or his (often incompetent) staff, neglected by John Wright in his various roles that they are going to have to clean up at considerable expense. He was nothing other than a boat anchor, resistance to change, protector of the status quo.
Good riddance to him, the taxpayers should be rejoicing that they’ve finally cast this political hack in civil servants’ clothing aside.
uh, john wright was kept around during Devine’s years for being seen as competent, and Romanow’s years for the same – even though he had worked under that administration prior.
there is a reason, people, someone gets elevated to the head of Finance and Health.
How much will his severance be? Why didn’t the severance amounts come out with these changes? a lot of questions to be asked still. I’m guessing that the switches are worth a few million…
“there is a reason, people, someone gets elevated to the head of…”
Explain Pat Atkinson.
Jason, being competent, and being kept around by the NDP are two different things for the most part. Wright may have accomplished the political objectives of the NDP, but many hard working people suffered under his complete lack of leadership.
Severance packages paid to civil servants in the Province are governed by the Crown Employment Contracts Act, 1991. The Crown Employment Contracts Act limits severance payments to people, such as John Wright, to 18 months. So his severance package, with his $300k/year salary, is likely about $500k, since he would qualify for the maximum 18 months based on his years of service, and his likely inability to find a comparable position in the private sector.
Most of the other Deputy Ministers made between $150k and $200k/year. Most would have received the same 18 months of severance, so probably $300k a piece. So the total cost probably was around $2.7 million.
Quite frankly, money well spent for the most part, but its unfortunate that merit is not the principle under which Deputy Ministers rise in the civil service.
Eeyore: Love the name, BTW
I have worked many years in the private sector and currently work for an agency which survives due to funding from the provincial and the federal government. I agree with you there are OODLES of people who abuse their position in the civil service. But I have also met those who are very dedicated and are careful not to take their position for granted. Having worked in the private sector for most of my life, I am always very aware of where my salary comes from and I find it very difficult at times when I witness the abuse of these dollars. The phrase “its the cost of doing business” just doesn’t wash with me in many cases.