IOG President Maryantonett Flumian with Sheikh Mansour Tamimi, Deputy Chair of the Iraqi Parliamentary Committee on Regions and Governorates, following two days of meetings between the Institute on Governance and the Committee focused on finalizing the Iraqi legislation on federal-provincial relations.

The Institute is on a 3 week mission in Iraq as part of the UNDP and UNESCWA’s Public Service Modernization Program in Iraq.

Our graduates, accompanied by the Clerk of the Privy Council, Wayne Wouters, and IOG staff.

On February 5, in a graduation ceremony at the Rideau Club in Ottawa, the Institute on Governance congratulated the first cohort of its Executive Leadership Program (ELP). The seventeen participants who completed the year-long program are a testimony to the commitment and talent of the up-and-coming executives in the federal public service. Participants in the ELP are nominated by their Deputy Ministers.

All the sponsoring Deputy Ministers were invited to attend the ceremony, and the guest of honour was the Clerk of the Privy Council, Wayne Wouters. Members of the Institute’s Board of Directors also attended the event.

The ELP graduates gave a presentation to the guests, highlighting their key learnings from their year in the ELP. They focused on the challenges facing the federal public service, such as new technologies and a changing workforce. The role of senior leaders in this transformational environment is pivotal.

The Clerk responded to the presentation, stressing the importance of on-going leadership development and the continuing need for innovation and a focus on results.

The year-long Executive Leadership Program prepares the future leaders of the federal public service by giving them a chance to hone their skills and learn how to tackle the challenges of a changing public sector and a fast-paced, technology-driven work environment.   The eleven sessions of the program combine speakers from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors with discussion, debate and case study analysis.

In addition, the ELP participants go on a five-day study tour to Iqaluit, Nunavut to learn first-hand about the challenges of governance in Nunavut, and the unique environment of Canada’s North.

The Institute on Governance will launch its fourth cohort of the Executive Leadership Program in March 2013.  Nominations are being accepted until February 28.

Balanced and effective oversight is critical to the success of any organization, but plays a distinctive role in the public sector. Public sector organizations, even those with a commercial orientation, are entrusted with public policy mandates and have more to answer for than just the bottom line. At the same time, excessive growth in the formal mechanisms of oversight can deliver diminishing returns and sometimes even overwhelm the primary functions of government. Given the increasingly widespread distribution of government responsibility to organizations beyond direct government control, the importance of this “oversight challenge” looms ever larger.

Ultimately, oversight is a kind of relationship, requiring the ongoing, systematic and skilful engagement of everyone concerned. This PGEx conference will give participants the understanding and the tools needed to adopt and support sound oversight practices and foster constructive and effective oversight relationships.

Learning Forum Events and Confirmed Speakers

Keynote Debate: “Is the Distribution of Government Responsibilities Undermining our System of Government?”

• Mel Cappe, Professor, School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto
• Maryantonett Flumian, President, Institute on Governance and former Deputy Minister, Service Canada

Panel: Legislative Oversight – Standing Before the Committee

• Kevin Page, Parliamentary Budget Officer
• John Williams, CEO, Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption

Panel: The Year in Governance – Surveying the Headlines

• Keith Beardsley, Partner at True North Public Affairs and former Deputy Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Panel: Foresight and Problem Solving in Delegated Relationships – Lessons from the Private Sector

• Todd Cain, Vice-President Public Governance, Institute on Governance
• Terry Ansari, Board Chair, Institute on Governance and Vice-President of Business Solutions, Cisco Canada
• Colleen Kelley, Vice-President Business Operations, Stratford Managers

Panel: Oversight of Crown Corporations – Delivering Value and Respecting Values

• John Knubley, Deputy Minister, Industry Canada
• Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Via Rail Canada
• Susan Margles, Vice-President Government Relations and Policy, Canada Post

Presentation: How Good is Your Governance? The IOG Governance Scorecard

• Todd Cain,Vice-President Public Governance, Institute on Governance

Presentation: Refining the Governance Continuum – Where Do You Fit In?

Good words from our last PGEx Symposium:

“It was like being on CPAC. Great discussion!” 

“Felt great to be among such expertise and absorb the discussion.”

“Excellent speakers and great table discussions.”

“I enjoyed the opportunity to engage colleagues on the issues at hand while establishing new contacts in a networking sense.”

“Well organized, great agenda, speakers, and food!”

Learning Outcomes 

With the benefit of diverse views from leaders in the public sector, academe, the private sector and media, participants will acquire an enriched understanding of:

• The most recent developments in public sector governance and the underlying trends they reflect;

• The evolution of oversight challenges – rising public expectations of accountability together with increased distribution of government responsibilities;

• The roles of different players in our oversight systems – ministers, parliamentarians and officers of parliament, organizations and their leaders;

• Tools and practices of effective oversight – managing relationships and risks, supporting appropriate alignment between governments and arms’-length organizations, and fostering public service values and ethics in commercial and operational enterprises;

• Lessons from the private sector’s experience in managing relationships with their supply chain partners – clarity of outcomes, communication and transparency, effective planning and risk-management, joint problem-solving, and product design; and

• PGEx’s evolving tools for analyzing inter-organizational relationships, designing governance systems and assessing the quality of governance at both the organizational and systems level.

Location and time

This event will be held in Downtown Ottawa:

• March 27^th 4:30 pm to 8 pm
• March 28^th 8:30 am to 4 pm

Cost

The cost of this learning event is $750 (no HST) per person. The price includes expert facilitation, all meals and breaks and course materials in electronic form.

Register now!

The BC Treaty Commission and the New Relationship Trust, working with the Institute on Governance, will host a two-day symposium bringing together Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders to talk about the successes and challenges of making social and economic progress in First Nations communities.

By convening experts, the symposium dialogue is aimed at providing stakeholders with a more holistic view of governance challenges and successes, moving toward what is required to generate the momentum to move beyond litigation and affect change.

The Symposium takes place February 19-20, 2013 at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 West Hastings St. in Vancouver. Registration is $250. Click here fore more information and to register. 

Featuring:

• Keynote Speech Delivered by Former Supreme Court Justice, The Honourable Justice Mr. Ian Binnie

• Change Makers Honour Ceremony: The Sparrow Case presented by: Former Lieutenant Governor Steven Point

Below, you’ll find the full agenda and key documents. Click here for more information and to register.

Partners:

Sponsors:

The Founder’s Internship Award recognizes excellence in scholarship and student engagement in public sector governance. The Founder’s Internship extends the Institute’s mission of promoting good governance as a key factor of success of governments, organizations and democracies. The Award consists of a twelve to fourteen week resident internship at the IOG’s offices in Ottawa or Toronto. Recipients receive a stipend for the duration of their internship. Recipients of the Internship contribute to all facets of the IOG’s activities, thereby applying the knowledge and experience to the Institute’s research, publishing, and training programs.

To apply:

Interested candidates should submit their application to the Institute by email to Lorraine Cole at lcole@iog.ca. Applications should consist of a covering letter and curriculum vitae. The cover letter should indicate the areas of the Institute’s activities where the candidate expects to make a contribution. The deadline to apply is Friday, March 29, 2013.

Like a lot of things, much of modern public governance is about trying to have our cake and eat it to.  We want institutions that are deeply specialized, but can still understand the larger agenda. We want agencies that act independently, but not too independently. We want crown corporations that act with commercial instincts, but still meet public sector norms of behaviour. The Continuum helps unpack these issues and map out the respective accountabilities across the system.

With so much insight packed into one model, we’ve developed an infographic to guide leaders through the key ideas we used to build the Governance Continuum - integrating horizontal and vertical views of government, looking at policy function, balancing institutional and less formal relationships.

Check it out and let us know what you think, and for more information on the Public Governance Exchange, check out our PGEx page.

We are asking that your organization participate in two ways. First, we would like someone from your senior executive team and a board director to complete the survey. It is 34 questions in length and will take roughly 25 minutes to complete. Second, we would like you to share the survey with your partner or member organizations. We are aiming to receive survey responses from the leadership of any third sector organizations such as not-for-profits, co-operatives, non-governmental organizations, and associations to get a large, diverse set of responses.

The survey is bilingual and is in an electronic format. You can click the link below to begin. To share it with others, please copy and paste it into an email or document, or post it on a web page. The survey must be completed before the deadline of March 15th. You can start the survey by click here: Survey link.

Note that individual responses to this survey will remain confidential.

If you have any questions about the research, please contact Institute on Governance Research Officer Dustin Munroe at dmunroe@iog.ca or 613-562-0090.

At the Beyond Section 35 event in Ottawa. Seated from left to right: Tony Belcourt (former President, Métis Nation of Ontario and Managing Partner at Tony Belcourt and Associates), Matthew Coon Come (Grand Chief of the Cree Nation), Phil Fontaine (former National Chief of the AFN), John Olthuis (Founding partner OKT), the Honorable Mr. Justice Harry Slade (Chairperson Specific Claims Tribunal of Canada), Melody Morrison (Senior Advisor, Canadian Boreal Initiative) and Miles Richardson (IOG Senior Associate).

Over three decades have passed since the enactment of Section 35 of the Constitution Act. While many Indigneous groups have already, or are currently, engaged in strengthening their own governance structures and exercising greater control over traditional land and resources, few would dispute that the full potential for a changed relationship with Canada created by Section 35 has not yet been realized. The Institute on Governance recognized the need to commemorate this groundbreaking recognition of rights, while at the same time capitalize on the opportunity to consider the substantial impact that recognition has had on altering both federal/provincial law and policy regarding Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous governance in Canadian society. The Beyond Section 35 Symposiums held in Ottawa in November 2012 and Vancouver, in February 2013, brought together key stakeholders from Indigenous communities and institutions, practitioners, public sector and academia to discuss and reflect upon the impact of the constitutional recognition of Section 35 on the lives and relations of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Over the coming months, meetings between the Prime Minister and Indigenous leadership, ongoing Idle No More rallies, and further dialogue regarding Section 35 will continue to position the discussions in the context of inherent and human rights. We hope that these discussions and efforts lend themselves to the kind of outcomes foreseen in the advent of Section 35.

Out with the old

In with the new

We’ve cleaned up and simplified the design, highlighted our areas of work and completely restructured the architecture which should hopefully translate into a smoother navigating experience for you.  Items like our courses and publications are now much easier to reach and to browse.  We’ve also added a section to highlight upcoming events that we are hosting like our 2012 Modern Makers event. Our business lines should give you a taste about the kind of work we do, and the experience of working with the IOG.

We hope you like the new site.  If you do have any feedback (good, bad or anything in between), don’t be shy to drop us a line.