LIBERALS GIVE LIBERALS A FAIL

PMO admits its own objectives not being met

OTTAWA • The Prime Minister’s Office has given itself a failing grade when it comes to meeting objectives it set for itself on indigenous and northern affairs, the National Post has learned.

The department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs is one of two ministries — the other is democratic reform — that did not get a passing grade on a “deliverology” report card that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet were expected to review as they began two days of meetings Monday in Calgary.

The report card was prepared by Trudeau’s political appointees inside his PMO as part of a stock-taking exercise as the government prepares for the House of Commons to reconvene on Jan. 30 and as cabinet considers what priorities it ought to emphasize as Finance Minister Bill Morneau begins work in earnest on the 2017 federal budget.

But while the National Post was provided top-line information about the “deliverology” report by a source who requested anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak to the media, the Post was unable to determine the reasons or circumstances for the shortcomings at indigenous affairs. Senior officials in both the PMO and the office of Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett did not respond to the Post’s requests Monday for information.

But the Post has spoken to Liberal political staffers from different departments over the past several weeks about the challenge of meeting the government’s commitments on the indigenous and northern affairs file.

INDIGENOUS LEADERS HAVE MADE SIMILAR COMPLAINTS.

The common theme in those discussions — which occurred on a not-for-attribution background basis — was that one of the biggest challenges is changing the culture at what is widely seen as one of the most sclerotic bureaucracies in the federal government: the department of indigenous and northern affairs.

That the 4,500 bureaucrats at the department have difficulty responding to change and insist on sticking to set ways is not a new revelation.

Many Conservative political staffers who had to work with that department over the past decade have often said the same thing.

Indigenous leaders have made similar complaints year in, year out for decades. Most recently, when Trudeau and Bennett attended a session in December at a special meeting of the Assembly of First Nations, several chiefs took to the microphone to praise the new attitude from the Liberal government while condemning the attitude of the non-partisan bureaucrats they deal with.

Even the auditor general, Michael Ferguson, in his most recent report to Parliament, complained specifically about a long history of inaction and indifference at the department of indigenous and northern affairs.

“This is now more than a decade’s worth of audits showing that programs have failed to effectively serve Canada’s indigenous peoples,” Ferguson wrote in November. “Until a problemsolving mindset is brought to these issues to develop solutions built around people instead of defaulting to litigation, arguments about money, and process roadblocks, this country will continue to squander the potential and lives of much of its indigenous population.”

That said, the National Post has been told by Liberal aides working to reverse that trend that the coming year or two could bear fruit precisely because of work done in the past year to remove or overcome those “process roadblocks.”

As a result, the Liberals are counting on quantifiable improvements in the year ahead on everything from the number of land claims processed to the number of First Nations reserves with new drinking water systems.

The term “deliverology” originates with Michael Barber, a former top aide to former British prime minister Tony Blair. Barber’s firm, Sir Michael’s Delivery Associated Ltd. of London, U.K., was given a two-year, $200,000 contract by Trudeau’s government to show it how it could adapt the public sector management system used by the Blair government to the Trudeau government.

That contract expires at the end of the current federal fiscal year on March 31.

Barber attended the past three cabinet retreats, but he is not in Calgary this week, a spokesperson for Trudeau said.

That said, Matthew Mendelsohn, who was hired by Trudeau to head up a special “agenda and results” unit inside the PMO, is in Calgary this week.

It has been Mendelsohn’s job to take Barber’s ideas and implement them across federal ministries.

Attempts to reach Mendelsohn Monday were also unsuccessful.