ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM AND POLITICAL CONTROL IN CANADA

The federal and provincial governments elected in Canada over the last ten years have defeated their opponents in promising to manage govern ment in a more productive manner, especially through the introduction of businesslike managerial practices. After a first series of across t he board cuts in the operational expenditures of the governmental depa rtments and agencies, they have undertaken very significant managerial reforms, especially at the federal level. These initiatives have gene rated important savings in the operational budgets of the government d epartments and agencies. However, any significant additional productiv ity improvement is likely to require substantive information on progra ms that central decision-making arrangements such as the federal and p rovincial treasury boards are not likely to obtain. Finally, the produ ctivity gains to be expected from the introduction of businesslike man agerial practices in government are likely to reach, in a short while, their threshold of decreasing marginal returns in a context where gov ernments have already privatized or employed user charges wherever gov ernment services had a market.