Revolving door for deputy ministers bad for policy - Opinion

WHEN Yaprak Baltacioglu was appointed deputy agriculture minister in March 2007, she had a request for the prime minister.

She asked that she be allowed to stay at the department for some time and not be shuffled to another department after a couple of years, as has become the government pattern.

Request, apparently, denied.

Last week, she was promoted to deputy minister of transport, infrastructure and communities, responsible for administering distribution of the government’s multi-billion dollar stimulus spending package.

Her term at Agriculture Canada was just three months longer than two years.

Read Also

Producers face the reality of shifting grain price expectations

Significant price shifts have occurred in various grains as compared to what was expected at the beginning of the calendar year. Crop insurance prices can be used as a base for the changes.

The relatively recent federal policy of shuffling senior bureaucrats regularly between departments means they rarely have time to get to know and understand the industry, never mind develop trust and respect with industry players.

While it may seem like an arcane ‘inside Ottawa’ point to a farmer trying to make a living in Acme, Alta., this bureaucratic trend in Ottawa does have a potentially dire consequence.

As the department is filled with senior managers who understand the Ottawa system but not the industry, it becomes more difficult for industry to explain to the department what is wrong and what needs to be done.

Former assistant deputy agriculture minister Doug Hedley pointed to the problem in a recent review of a book on agricultural trade by University of Toronto professor Grace Skogstad.

“The book will be useful to policy makers,” he wrote. “As background, historical and institutional knowledge and understanding of agriculture and food policy diminishes in the senior ranks of governments through encouragement of cross-departmental career paths of officials …”

Martin Rice, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council and a 31-year veteran of Ottawa agricultural lobbying, has seen the effect first hand.

“It takes much longer for the department to respond to an urgent industry situation because there is no inherent understanding and it therefore takes time to get the issue on the radar screen because lower level officials have to educate senior officials about the issue,” he said June 22. “It is almost as if the centre wants to keep people moving so they do not become too attached to the department and the industry.”

Baltacioglu’s departure marked a rare Ottawa occasion when a bureaucratic shuffle evoked emotion both inside and outside the department (with the exception of a recent deputy minister whose departure evoked great emotion: joy.)

She was respected inside the department and industry representatives last week praised her for being sensitive to the industry, open to meeting representatives and understanding of industry views.

There was a sense that agriculture was losing an influential friend.

She also seemed conflicted. In a note to Agriculture Canada staff announcing her imminent departure, she talked about her “mixed emotions” at the news.

“When I was appointed to AAFC in 2007, I felt so lucky to have been given the chance to become deputy minister of my home department,” she wrote.

In this day of deputy ministers coming into departments for short terms with a loyalty to the central bureaucracy, getting emotional about a department is rare.