By Kathryn May. Reach out: functionary@irpp.org. 

Hi all,

Public Service Week is wrapping up – and so is an era. Clerk John Hannaford gave his final address ahead of his July 7 retirement. No fanfare, a heartfelt tribute to the work of public servants.

Enter Michael Sabia — the next clerk of the Privy Council — stepping into the most powerful job in the federal public service just as Ottawa braces for what some insiders are calling a long-overdue reset.

This is not just another appointment. Let’s be clear on that.

The Carney-Sabia combo will be felt profoundly and fast. A senior shuffle is expected any day, and departments are already being asked to map out spending-cut scenarios for a looming expenditure review.

So, let’s dig in.

The view, two ways: What Sabia can see.

PCO versus PMO: “Now there will be a clear understanding.”

Epic clerk, epic change?: Sabia could make the difference.

The return of clarity: Will Sabia restore order and accountability?

Direct, driven, demanding: Carney, Sabia and the Goldman Sachs way.

But will that fly in Ottawa?: Barked orders don’t tend to translate well.

DMs, we’re looking at you: “I think he’s already got his people in mind.”

Measure twice, cut once: The savings scenarios quietly begin.

Sabia in 2002 as CEO of BCE Inc. CP Photo/Andre Forget

THE SABIA ADVANTAGE
He’s of and outside the system

Sabia has the instincts of a CEO and the eye of a consummate strategist. Having led BCE Inc., Hydro-Québec and the Caisse de dépôt, he brings a rare mix of public- and private-sector muscle to the position. The clerk is the PM’s top adviser on how to make government work. He’ll be chief of execution in a public service that’s struggled to deliver.

But he’s also no stranger to the federal bureaucracy.

Mission government – before it was a thing. Back in the Mulroney years, a young Sabia helped usher in two of that era’s most quietly transformative reforms: the GST and early performance-based planning. He helped design the GST at Finance, then moved to PCO’s plans and priorities – a traditional proving ground for future DMs – where he worked under former clerk Paul Tellier to better align cabinet priorities with departmental delivery. Long before “mission government” had a name, Sabia was laying its foundations.

Later, he returned as deputy minister of Finance in the thick of the pandemic — and by some accounts wasn’t impressed with how sidelined the department had become. (The fit was rocky. Some in Finance found Sabia’s management style at odds with how the department operated, as we reported at the time). Bottom line, he knows how the machinery should work, how it does work, and how to get it moving.

That history matters now.

There’s been plenty said and written since Sabia’s appointment — some full of hope, some full of hype, and some, like Paul Wells’s take, offering a splash of cold water on a track record that hasn’t always delivered.

Even his biggest champions see a real test ahead. Sabia may have the moment — but whether he can get the machinery fixed — and back on track — remains to be seen.

Between PCO and PMO, lines will be redrawn. His former boss and longtime mentor, Paul Tellier — who recruited Sabia from PCO to join him at CN Railway — says Sabia is the right person at the right time.

Tellier says Sabia saw the dysfunction of the Trudeau years up close while serving as Chrystia Freeland’s deputy. Power was concentrated in the PMO, ministers were sidelined, and PCO was too deep in files beyond its lane.

“PCO isn’t doing its job,” Tellier says. “Trudeau never understood that. The government was basically led by a bunch — most of them incompetent — in PMO. But now there will be a clear understanding, as there was over the years, that PCO is policy and PMO is politics.”

And Carney, he adds, won’t expect his chief of staff to deliver passports. “That’s the public service’s job. PCO should make sure delivery happens.”

He argues a deputy minister today should be happy: ministers will have clear mandates, no longer on tight leashes, and will work with their deputies as a team.

A CLERK OF NOTE
This could be “the moment”

Sabia could end up being the most consequential clerk since Gordon Robertson, says University of Moncton’s Donald Savoie — who has written book after book on government dysfunction.

Robertson is still seen as the gold standard of clerkdom. He served several prime ministers and helped roll out nation-building projects like the Canada Pension Plan, medicare, and the Maple Leaf flag during the Pearson era. (Fun fact: Sabia is married to Pearson’s granddaughter. And his mother, Laura Sabia, was a trailblazing feminist and founding president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women)

Robertson’s old bureaucratic-sounding mantra still resonates: PMO is partisan, politically oriented but operationally sensitive; PCO is non-partisan, operationally oriented, but politically sensitive 

Savoie, who shares Tellier’s view, says Carney is laying the groundwork for a major reset in how government operates: borrowing from the U.K.’s “mission government” model with a few clear priorities, real ministerial accountability, streamlined mandate letters, and a spending review focused on reallocating resources rather than just cuts. Add to that Carney’s outreach to MPs, barring political staffers from caucus meetings, and a new budgeting system.

Savoie argues reform only happens with political will at the top — and a driven, focused Carney paired with a like-minded Sabia could be the reform “moment” he’s been pushing for over decades.

“I think the signals are there, and I think the people are there. Now the third leg is implementation — and that, my friend, we’ll have to wait for.”

There’s no doubt power was too centralized in PMO. Political staffers overstepped, and the result was clogged decision-making. Insiders say Sabia was “appropriately horrified” by the level of interference from PMO and Freeland’s office. Others argue PCO was doing what it could in a highly centralized, PMO- run system.

In a recent Manion lecture, former clerk Jocelyne Bourgon called for a rethink of central agencies. Since 2000, the budgets of PCO, Treasury Board and Finance have ballooned — up 250, 540 and 220 per cent respectively. She warned that when central agencies get too operational, they lose the big picture. Buried in transactions, they stop thinking strategically and excellence slips.

Bourgon also called for trimming political staff and getting them back to doing their jobs: building political alliances, maintaining party unity, and managing Parliament.

Sabia’s fix starts with clarity. In roles, responsibilities and decision-making, there has been a loss in clarity, says Robert Shepherd, professor at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration.

Sabia, he argues, will be consequential if he restores coherence and order: ministers doing their jobs, deputies doing theirs, departments knowing what they’re accountable for, and decisions flowing properly.

But lack of accountability is a symptom. The root issue, says Shepherd, is unclear responsibility. “You can’t be held to account unless you’ve clearly been given responsibility.” Too many hands in decision-making and too little clarity on who does what means no one truly “owns” the result. Without that, not only is no one accountable — nothing gets done.

UPSIDE. DOWNSIDE. RISK
Why not more centralization?

Sabia’s style — direct, driven, and demanding — mirrors Carney’s. For some, that’s a welcome shift from the indecision and drift they felt under the Trudeau-era PMO. “There was a lot of frustration around decision-making,” one official said. “It’s refreshing now to get clear direction — to give your advice and actually get an answer.”

Some insiders worry that having two heavyweight technocrats like Carney and Sabia at the top will deepen the centralization of power — not undo it. “Absolutely,” says one senior official, “that’s a concern of some deputies.”

Most senior bureaucrats I spoke to think Sabia will be a strong clerk. He won’t get bulldozed by Carney, who is likely to take his advice seriously given Sabia’s private-sector and business chops.

“I think Sabia is a super credible individual who can stand up to Carney and stay focused on results — which we badly need right now.”

But are they too alike? That’s the worry. Both bring a Goldman Sachs-style mindset with big ambition that prizes speed and outcomes, which could drive them to barrel ahead — not listening, not slowing down, ignoring red flags.

Would deputies raising alarms about a Phoenix-style pay disaster get heard? Or would they be dismissed as risk-averse and stuck in public-service inertia?

As one long-time deputy minister said:

“Neither Carney nor Sabia has worked in the parts of government that actually deliver services. Finance manages crises — it doesn’t build systems. Fixing immigration or modernizing service delivery isn’t about reacting fast. It’s about designing complex programs, managing risk, and building IT that actually works. That’s not their wheelhouse.”

Goldman pace, Ottawa reality. The kind of style that works at Goldman Sachs — where there’s a deep bench of talent ready to step in — doesn’t translate easily to the public service, where replacements aren’t so easy to find or groom. Burnout here carries real risks, and losing top talent isn’t as simple as hiring the next in line.

Tellier and Sabia also came up in a different era. Barking orders and command-and-control leadership were the norm in the 1990s. But that style is now widely seen as outdated.

These days clerks prioritize wellness and mental health. And many public servants are tired. They haven’t a breather since the pandemic. There’s been Trump’s trade war, the federal election, two government transitions, and new crises keep coming – wars, fires.

Can the public service handle a hard-driving, two-year push for massive changes – with the chaos of layoffs? And can Carney stay focused to get his big things done?

The new guard is, well, older. Carney and his lieutenants — Sabia, chief-of-staff Marc-André Blanchard, and principal secretary David Lametti — are all white, male Boomers or Gen Xers leading a millennial-dominated public service that’s 58-per-cent women.

Many public servants have only ever worked under the Trudeau government, where wellness, DEI, values and ethics, and work-life balance were top priorities. Money flowed and the public service grew. Gears are now shifting to high performance, speed, outcomes, spending and job cuts. That’s a culture shift.

The real leadership test may be less about what gets done — and more about how.

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DEPUTIES

Shuffle Watch is on

As a recent deputy minister himself, Sabia knows the strengths and weaknesses of some of the current crop of deputies. Many suspect he and Carney have already sized up who they want in key jobs — setting the stage for a significant realignment.

And all bets are on bringing in outsiders to fil the gaps.

There are 9,155 executives and some 85 deputy ministers, and many argue it’s time to cull those ranks.

“There’s going to be such a shakeup in the deputy-ministerial corps over the next two to three weeks like we haven’t seen in a long time,’ said Shepherd. “We’re just starting to see the shakeup.

“And I think he’s already got his people in mind and deputies have already been told on the QT, ‘Sorry, you’re not in. Find a landing pad or await what we have in mind for you.’ ”

All eyes on Finance. Plenty of departments matter in a shuffle with Carney’s big ambitions – but Finance is the one to watch.

You’ve got to feel for Chris Forbes: an affable, respected DM who took over from Sabia to run Finance.  But how do you do that job when the PM is a former Finance DM and Bank of Canada governor, and the new clerk is a former Finance DM, too?

“It has to be tough. Not an easy situation,” says one insider. The department has two associate-deputy spots. One’s been vacant for a while and the other will be when Suzy McDonald leaves to run Stanstead College in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. 

Follow the money to TBS. TBS Secretary Bill Matthews is a solid Treasury Board insider who is now paired with a green minister and a cabinet committee full of rookies.

With deputy stints at PSPC and Defence, he brings key experience that will be useful if fixing defence procurement is on the table. But some wonder: why move to a new agency to inherit that nightmare file? Also, TBS and Finance are shaping up to be ground zero for a promised expenditure review.

Meanwhile, the menu planning has begun. Prepping for an expenditure review kicks off quietly this summer. Departments are being asked to model savings scenarios — with percentage or dollar targets — and report back with options. Proposals will shape fall budget planning, giving the government a menu of cuts to work with.

Insiders say the review won’t hit all departments equally. Those aligned with expanding government priorities — defence, public safety, and border security — are likely to be shielded. Most departments are expected to do a deep dive on programs that are underperforming, redundant, or no longer aligned with government priorities.

There, you have it. The spreadsheets are just the beginning — decisions come later, and they’ll land hard.

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A bit about me. I cover and analyze the federal public service for Policy Options as the Accenture Fellow on the Future of the Public Service. I've been reporting on the public service for 25 years. My work has appeared in the Ottawa Citizen and iPolitics, and has earned a National Newspaper Award. Full bio. X: @kathryn_may. 

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