Hartley Furtan has some unorthodox advice for the federal government as it tries to figure out who to hire as the next deputy agriculture minister.
Take a chance. Inject a bit of chaos into the bureaucracy. Don’t just look inside the ranks of senior bureaucrats for a new deputy. Consider hiring an outsider.
“I think it would be a good thing to do it Ottawa,” Furtan said last week from his office in the agricultural economics department of the University of Saskatchewan. “It would bring some chaos and uncertainty but chaos theory tells us that chaos is good once in awhile.”
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It would be a break in tradition for the federal government, which must find a replacement for Ray Protti by June.
In recent times, it has favored dipping into other government departments for veteran bureaucrats to head Agriculture Canada. National Revenue, Treasury Board and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service have been the sources during the past dozen years.
Knowledge of agriculture has not been a job requirement.
Now, Furtan figures it is time to inject some new thinking into the department with an outsider view, perhaps provided by someone who has worked in agri-business.
“An outsider would bring a fresh perspective,” he says. “Inside the bureaucracy, the future is something that is handed down. From the outside, the future is something you shape. It would stir things up.”
Furtan is not speaking strictly from theory. The Saskatchewan government plucked him from the university in 1993 and asked him to put some of his theories into practice in Regina as deputy minister of agriculture and food. He did so for 30 months. He figures the experience changed both him and the department.
Charlie Mayer, for nine years a cabinet minister in the Mulroney government, thinks the same could happen in Ottawa.
From his farm at Carberry, Man., Mayer last week reflected on what strengths a new deputy minister should have. “It’s a combination of things but the main thing is having what on the farm we used to call horse sense,” he said. “It’s knowing when to stand still to be harnessed, when to stop or turn at the edge of a field.”
He said the new deputy also should know the industry, be able to work with people, have management skills, have a vision and know, or be able to learn quickly, the government system in Ottawa.
“You have to know who to talk to get things done in Ottawa, but that can be learned,” he said.
“I think going outside government to hire would be a very good idea.”
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture has suggested that a precondition for the next hiring should be that the new man or woman know agriculture.
Furtan said it also is important that new chief Agriculture Canada bureaucrat bring to the job ideas on how government departments should deal with clients.
“Relations between the industry and the government are going to be a very important issue in future. Some skills and fresh thinking there would be welcome.”
