Reorganization study published, twenty years later

In 1993, Prime Minister Kim Campbell (right) launched a reorganization exercise that was promoted as “the most significant downsizing and restructuring of government ever undertaken in Canada.”  A federal agency, the Canadian Centre for Management Development, contracted with ten academics to conduct a study of the restructuring.  (I wrote the report that examined the merger of two departments, Public Works and Supply and Services.)  The overall study was completed, prepared for publication — and then shelved.  Nine of the studies have now been posted online by the University of Victoria.  (The tenth study is still unavailable: “There was difficulty in securing the necessary approvals for its release under the current publication guidelines of the Government of Canada.”)  Several of the authors will meet to discuss the project in Ottawa on March 12.  The author of the lead chapter, Peter Aucoin of Dalhousie University, passed away in 2011.  The Canadian Centre for Management Development is now the Canadian School for Public Service.