from ceremony to substance
Sean Kilpatrick - THE CANADIAN PRESS
In case you missed it, today was a big day in Canada. King Charles, in his role as Canada's sovereign, delivered a historic Speech from the Throne to open the 45th Parliament. But beneath the ceremony's grandeur lay a fundamental question: Can meaningful reform emerge from traditions rooted in the past?
As a policy nerd with British roots, I'll admit, I was captivated. The Royal Family has long been part of my personal and cultural memory. We have a complicated relationship. Yet watching today's proceedings, I found myself caught between genuine emotion and hard-headed analysis about what this all means for Canada's future.
The Power of Symbols
The symbolism struck me powerfully. The ceremonial walk to the Senate featured Governor General Mary Simon, an Inuk woman and the first Indigenous person to hold that role, alongside the King. Upon entering the Senate, they were greeted by River Dance Drummers, I instantly welled up with tears. Later, as the Usher of the Black Rod fetched MPs and Morgan Grace, a left-handed Métis fiddler, performed while Nunavut-born Reverend Aigah Attagutsiak lit the qulliq on the Senate floor, I had goosebumps.
These moments matter precisely because of their historical absence. When I started my career in 2008, such representation was unthinkable. This highlighted to me how our institutions had systematically erased Indigenous voices. Today's ceremony suggested progress, even if incomplete.
I was also swept up by the reiteration of Canada's sovereignty. As King Charles noted at towards the end of the address: "As the anthem reminds us: The True North is indeed strong and free!" While the monarchy traditionally maintains political neutrality, this Speech acknowledged that our times demand the hardest form of soft diplomacy. Let's be honest: it's at least partly why King Charles was here delivering this Speech in person.
The Policy Reality Check
But ceremony must ultimately serve substance. Prime Minister Carney's agenda, as outlined in the Speech, was breathtakingly ambitious: clean economy, housing, security and defence, affordability, climate, energy, trade, innovation, and science. This comprehensiveness makes me nervous. There was no identification of what was on the agenda for this Parliamentary session. When everything is a priority, nothing truly is.
Then came the line that caused me great skepticism:
"In all of its actions, the Government will be guided by a new fiscal discipline: spend less so Canadians can invest more. Day-to-day government spending – the government’s operating budget – has been growing by nine percent every year. The Government will introduce measures to bring it below two percent. Transfers to provinces, territories, or individuals will be maintained. The Government will balance its operating budget over the next three years by cutting waste, capping the public service, ending duplication, and deploying technology to improve public sector productivity."
The Bureaucracy Dilemma
Having served as an executive and witnessed how much talent gets consumed by process and politics, I understand why people are astounded by the public service's size. Yet it's easy to throw stones when you've never stepped inside this ridiculously complicated glass house.
But here's what goes unnoticed: the sheer scope of change under the Trudeau Liberals was astonishing. Out of interest, I did a little experiment. By my count, my former department, Employment and Social Development Canada, introduced roughly a dozen new programs since 2016. That is not counting modifications made to existing ones or the ideas pursued that never came to fruition.
This work doesn't happen in a vacuum. For example, creating a single program requires policy decisions (which involve a Budget proposal and Memorandum to Cabinet) and financial appropriations (through a Treasury Board Submission), processes that involve 30+ people albeit with varying levels of engagement. That is all before it even moves to implementation.
The Reform Challenge
I am often the first person to tell you there are many efficiencies to be gained within the public service. I could talk for hours about changes that I see that could be made to improve both how the public service functions internally (which would do wonders for morale and psychological safety) and how it provides services to Canadians.
I wholeheartedly applaud any efforts to cut waste, end duplication, and deploy technology to improve productivity. I have high hopes that Prime Minister Carney can deliver this transformation. But the devil lives in the details.
For two years, the Government has been implementing RGS (Reducing Government Spending). This work has been time consuming and painstaking. Especially for the middle-level management (I see you Managers and EX-1s and EX-2s). These changes are happening at the departmental level and has resulted into cutting low-hanging fruit: training, travel budgets, temporary employees. These types of short-term (and short-sighted) changes and will have long-term impacts.
This kind of approach lacks a system-wide vision that could bring the fundamental change that is needed. Consequently, Government avoids confronting its real existential questions—not least of which should be: what do we stop doing altogether?
Experts like Jocelyne Bourgogne, Donald Savoie, and Michael Wernick have all called for large-scale reforms. The Canadian Public Administration Journal dedicated an entire issue to the subject (and made it open source)! What is obvious is that the change needed isn't tinkering around the edges: it's a reimagining of how government operates.
Strong Conclusion: The Path Forward
The true test of this Speech from the Throne won't be found in its soaring rhetoric or moving symbolism. It will be measured by whether Prime Minister Carney can transform good intentions into effective governance. Can he cut through bureaucratic complexity without sacrificing the programs Canadians need?
My father-in-law, a career senior public service leader, liked to compare government to a slinky. He would always say that it needed to look back (and sometimes even go backwards) to move forward. That wisdom feels particularly relevant now.
We've seen this movie before: grand promises followed by incremental change. But perhaps this time, with fiscal discipline as both constraint and catalyst, we might finally see the fundamental reform our government desperately needs.
This is the moment to make intentional changes that leave the public service better than we found it. We owe it not just to Canadians who deserve effective government, but to the dedicated public servants who show up to work every day believing they can make a difference. It is desperately needed.
The pageantry was beautiful. Now comes the hard part: making it mean something.
