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The Canadian Civil Service

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

R. MacGregor Dawson
R. MacGregor Dawson*
Affiliation:
The University of Saskatchewan
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Extract

The Dominion civil service has had a more troubled history than any other part of our government, and it bears on its body the marks of many campaigns. It has been constantly under attack from all quarters; it has been the subject of almost innumerable investigations by Royal Commissions and Select Committees; and it has been exposed to three complete reorganizations since 1867, each of which has involved fundamental changes of a sweeping character. Nor can one say with any assurance that the general principles and organization of the service are as yet permanently fixed. Reactionary forces which threaten to undermine the merit system seem to be increasing in recent years, and many of the fundamental ideas on which the existing service is built are proving to be unsatisfactory. It is this phase of the problem that I would like to discuss in this paper—the civil service of to-day and the developments which may be hoped for, or guarded against, to-morrow. Much of what I shall say is old and has been stated many times before; but re-statements along these lines are imperative if the public service is to occupy its proper place in the future government of the Dominion.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , August 1936 , pp. 288 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1936

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References

1 Statutes of Canada, 7-8 Edw. VII, c. 15.

2 Ibid., 8-9 Geo. V, c. 12.

3 The original line was drawn at those positions paying $200 or less a year. Cf. Dawson, R. MacG., The Civil Service of Canada (Oxford, 1929), p. 97 Google Scholar ff.

4 Report of the Civil Service Commission, 1931, pp. xx–xxi Google Scholar; 1932, pp. xvi-xvii; 1933, pp. 20-1; 1934, pp. 16-7.

5 Statutes of Canada, 25-26 Geo. V, c. 66. At one time the Board had 1,594 employees on its staff (Canada, House of Commons Debates, June 20, 1935, p. 3843).

6 Cf. Canada, House of Commons Debates, 05 12, 1932, pp. 2847–50.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., June 4, 1931, p. 2278; March 9, 1936, p. 950 (unrevised).

8 Report of Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1932 ( Canada, House of Commons Journals, 1932, app. no. 3, pp. 14, 92–4, 148–9, 218–9Google Scholar).

9 Ibid., pp. 7-9, 42; Report of the Civil Service Commission, 1931, p. xix Google Scholar; 1932, p. xiii; 1933, pp. 11-2.

10 Ibid., 1932, pp. xv-xvi.

11 Ibid., 1931, pp. xix-xx; 1933, pp. 18-20; Report of Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1932 ( Canada, House of Commons Journals, 1932, app. no. 3, pp. 78–9Google Scholar).

12 Cf. Canada, House of Commons Debates, 02 6, 1936, pp. 8–12 (unrevised).Google Scholar

13 1918 P.C. no. 358; Canada Gazette, 1918, 2947–8Google Scholar; Statutes of Canada, 8-9 Geo. V, c. 12.

14 Report of Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1932 ( Canada, House of Commons Journals, 1932, app. no. 3, p. 140 Google Scholar; cf. also pp. 163-4).

15 Cf. Report of Transmission, 1919, p. 43.Google Scholar

16 It was disclosed in 1932, for example, that many of the Commission's own employees had been promoted in spite of the fact that they could not fulfil the educational demands of the Schedule, and the present chairman of the Commission said that this condition was “fairly general in the service” ( Canada, House of Commons Journals, 1932, app. no. 3, p. 158 Google Scholar; cf. pp. 155-8, 182-6).

17 Grant, W. L., “The Civil Service of Canada” (University of Toronto Quarterly, 07, 1934, p. 438 Google Scholar).

18 Cf. the testimony of the chief of the Examination Branch (now chairman of the Commission) before the Select Committee in 1932 ( Canada, House of Commons Journals, 1932, app. no. 3, pp. 898–900 Google Scholar).

19 Report of the Civil Service Commission, 1933, pp. 10–1.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., 1934, p. 11.