Project
Public Service Innovation and Leadership During COVID-19
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Faced with a global pandemic, governments throughout Canada responded in real-time to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), testing the resiliency of our government and public institutions. Government responses not only varied across the country between First Nation communities, municipalities, the provincial governments, and the federal government but also within their respective public services. Within a short amount of time, governments had to drive adequate public-health responses and respond with robust economic interventions to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of Canadians. Due to the fast-moving pace of change, government institutions had to be quick, innovative and agile, often taking a collaborative and cooperative approach, which has led to many extraordinary governmental responses. This project seeks to embrace and recognize the approach taken by public servants in embracing uncertainty, learning from experimentation and innovation, and working collaboratively across different sectors and jurisdictions.
Timeline
May to November 2020
Methodology
The project seeks to find, capture and recognize the outstanding and groundbreaking work being done by the public services across Canada in supporting citizens, businesses, non-profit organizations, First Nation communities and municipalities in these unprecedented times. By taking a 360˚ approach and engaging stakeholders within and outside of the government through a series of interviews, the project aims to provide in-depth coverage into 10 – 15 governmental responses (or initiatives) or case studies from anywhere between the policy development to agile implementation and operational innovation. We will use an ethnographic and storytelling approach to the case study development that will make each response or story more accessible and engaging for a broad audience.
As governments continue to develop policies, test new approaches and find solutions, the coverage could help public servants, public sector leaders and decisionmakers in addition to Canadians across the country to better understand the key factors and necessary conditions for an agile and robust government response to a crisis, and thus aiding efforts to fight the pandemic.
As part of the PPF Academy, the government case studies identified would serve as immediate, medium and long-term learning and leadership development tool and create the building blocks of an innovation and leadership case study bank for the Federal public service.
Contact
Jonathan Perron-Clow, Project Lead
Reports
Different Paths of Pandemic Protection
Getting Canadians immunized against COVID-19 has been a complicated process in a country that has neither the capabilities to produce its own vaccine nor a centralized healthcare system to administer it.
Sequencing the Crisis
As COVID-19 surged through Canada’s population, the country’s genomics community came together in an ambitious national consortium to sequence the genomes of the virus and Canadians exposed or affected. Its challenging work didn’t stop there. Mary Gooderham recounts how it was done.
A Ministry Steeped in Tradition Goes Virtual
Since March 2020, Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG) has transitioned its largely paper-based and in-person justice system to predominately online and virtual services—opening new opportunities for public access to court proceedings.
How One Indigenous Service Agency Is Fighting COVID and Winning
"We're going to send our helpers in and we're not going to stop." The Kenora Chiefs Advisory, an Indigenous-led health and social services agency, got to work right away in the nine First Nations it serves to stop COVID from entering. And so far, it's worked.
Keeping the Lights On: Did a wage subsidy in a time of crisis save Canadian businesses?
As businesses saw their revenues plummet in early spring, the Department of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency quickly hammered out the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy allowing employers to keep on staff. Did it achieve what it set out to do?
A Pivotal Moment: CSIS steps out of the shadows to protect Canada’s biopharmaceutical and healthcare sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic
In Spring 2020, threat actors wearing lab coats instead of trench coats were infiltrating our labs in hopes of stealing valuable COVID-19 vaccine research. It forced Canada’s top secret intelligence agency CSIS to step out of the shadows and warn those most at risk.
No More Islands of Care: Bolstering mental health and addictions services for pandemic & post-pandemic life on Prince Edward Island
Prior to COVID-19, Prince Edward Island struggled to keep up with demand for mental health and addictions services. This account tells of the pivot to virtual care which sees P.E.I. with more psychiatrists on-call and more options for support. Good thing, because the long-term stresses brought by the pandemic have made these services more critical than ever before.
The Data Talks: How Statistics Canada Measured a Pandemic
Canada’s economy has had its ups and downs, crashes, failures and recessions, but how do you measure the business impact of a country that simply stopped working and intentionally shut down its economy to halt the spread of COVID-19?
Flipping the Script: Alberta Health Services’ online assessment tool becomes the core of the province’s COVID response
Little did Alberta Health Services' Digital Experience team know this moment would shift the province’s whole pandemic strategy, and become the core of Alberta’s COVID response. Their assessment tool with online booking and results would get attention from across North America, and spark a form of collaboration that would cast lasting doubt on the way things have always been done.
Coming Home: Global Affairs’ Quest to Repatriate Canadians
For six months, Global Affairs morphed into a giant consular and travel service. As part of the Public Service Innovation and Leadership During COVID-19 series, we dive into this account of historic department-wide shifts to consular services to help Canadians abroad. With a volunteer workforce of more than 1,000 public servants pulled from their day jobs, this consular focus led to major rethinking of how the department responds to an emergency and underscored the need to communicate the way Canadians do.
How ‘Get Updates on COVID-19’ Got Up and Going
PPF's new series chronicles how public servants throughout Canada responded in real-time to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). First up: A new email notification service, Get Updates on COVID-19, turns traditional methods of government communications on its ear. How did it come to be in weeks, not months?
Events
Partners
Thank you to our lead sponsor
Thank you to our project partners
