The Public Governance Exchange

The IOG’s premier applied research initiative – The Public Governance Exchange (PGEx) - was launched in 2010 as a multi-jurisdictional applied syndicated research program into public sector governance.

In the last 20 years, governments have accelerated the distribution of authority and accountability across a broad spectrum of institutions (e.g. agencies, boards, authorities, commissions) with the goal of increasing public sector efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness to citizens. Overtime this has led to unintended consequences such as: overlapping institutional and legal mandates, unclear accountability and duplication of services or programs. Given the need for increased efficiency and accountability, the public sector can ill afford these situations.

To date over 100 Canadian and international organizations have been surveyed and over fifty case studies have been completed at the government-wide level or at the level of ministerial entities, policy portfolios/clusters (e.g. energy, arts and cultural), operational sectors (e.g. utilities) or across jurisdictions responsibilities (e.g. health and the environment).

Membership in the Public Governance Exchange allows governments to discuss the changing context for government and governance – a context marked by the need to adapt to internal and external fiscal, economic and social policy approaches. To succeed in this environment, current and future public sector leaders need to understand the features of adaptive governance systems.

Participants gain a deeper understanding of: 

• trends in Canada and other Westminster model countries
• the foundations of governance as applied to traditional and arm’s length government institutions
• the interdependence among institutional actors in order to more effectively manage the relationships within the governance continuum
• how accountability, risk and performance are affected by the interdependencies among institutions and governance
• how to measure the quality of governance in your organization
• the relationship between all these issues and outcomes.

Early work within PGEx focused on linking two areas of government: the traditional, hierarchical organizations of government and the more arm’s length functions. This work evolved and resulted in the development of a model that integrates on the traditional, institutional and legal divisions and distinctions and the relationships that make government sustainable. The result is the Continuum, which offers both an organic model of public sector governance and a dynamic management tool. 

Figure 1: The IOG Governance Continuum

The Institute’s Governance Continuum illustrates the interdependencies and interactions of institutions essential to making the governance ecosystem sustainable. The Continuum is a more robust depiction of governance than the traditional focus on defined institutional arrangements. In the face of an evolving governmental operating environment the Continuum offers an understanding of the interplay of institutional arrangements and relationships that are key to evolution and adaptation. The Continuum allows for analysis in any one jurisdiction or across jurisdictions, as actors within and outside of government can collaborate towards better outcomes. A more detailed version of the Continuum can be viewed in the attachment below.

While PGEx began with work at the federal and provincial levels of government, two separate streams of research are now being launched. The first is in the area of aboriginal governance and the second in the area of local governance.

The Public Governance Exchange's Advisory Board is composed of respected academics and practitioners involved in governance. They are:

• Ray Hession, Current Chair of eHealth Ontario’s Board of Directors. He has held several leadership positions in the private, not-for-profit and government worlds.

• Ruth Hubbard, senior fellow at The Centre on Governance and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, she is a senior partner in Invenire and a former Deputy Minister in the federal government.

• Stephane Jacobzone, senior economist with the Regulatory Management and Reform Division of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He is in charge of reviews of regulatory reform in OECD countries.

• Gilles Paquet, Professor Emeritus at the School of Management and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre on Governance of the University of Ottawa. He is also associated to the consulting firm Invenire.

• John Wilkins, former Senior Commonwealth Secretariat official involved in promoting public sector development. He now is Executive in Residence with the Master of Public Administration Program of the Schulich School of Business at York University.

For more information on PGEx or to enquire on becoming a member, please contact Todd Cain, Vice President of Board and Organizational Governance at 613-562-0092 or tcain@iog.ca.