Clients, citizens and federalism: A critical appraisal of integrated service delivery in Canada

Abstract

Making government services more responsive to the needs of citizens is an ongoing preoccupation of public administration. Doing so in a federal system presents particular challenges and has led to efforts to integrate service delivery across two or more orders of government or into what some have called ‘‘citizencentred federalism.’’ This article offers a critical evaluation of this concept by emphasizing the need to distinguish between instrumental and organic conceptions of both citizenship and federalism. Doing so reveals that much of what has been done to date by way of service integration deals only with a limited subset of all the services that governments provide. It also suggests that some Canadians may be willing to sacrifice efficiency in order to preserve or strengthen local autonomy and identity and that Canadians who hold an instrumental conception of federalism may well be willing to entertain quite dramatic changes as to who does what if this means more effective delivery of public goods. Finally, this analysis suggests that, for some citizens, the key criterion for evaluating any given proposal to provide public goods is much less one of efficiency and much more (or at least equally) one of federalism and strengthening the institutions and practices of federation. Sommaire : Mieux adapter les services gouvernementaux aux besoins des citoyens est une preoccupation permanente de l’administration publique. Dans un systeme federal, cela presente des defis particuliers et a donne lieu a des efforts pour integrer la prestation de services dans deux paliers de gouvernement ou plus ou dans ce que certains ont appele un s federalisme axe sur le citoyen . Cet article offre une evaluation critique de ce concept en soulignant le besoin de faire une distinction entre les conceptions instrumentale et organique a la fois de la citoyennete et du federalisme. Cela revele qu’une grande partie de ce qui a ete fait jusqu’a present en matiere d’integration de services ne s’applique qu’a un sous-ensemble limite de tous Patrick Fafard is professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. Francois Rocher and Catherine Cote are professors, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa. They would like to acknowledge the helpful comments made by Richard Simeon and Ralph Heintzman, although the usual caveats apply, and are grateful to the SSHRC for funding this project. The authors would also like to thank Mireille Paquet, Isabelle Leblanc and Catherine Ellyson for their invaluable research assistance and all those public servants who collaborated with them in the research that is reported here. Finally, the helpful comments made by the Journal’s anonymous reviewers are also acknowledged. CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION / ADMINISTRATION P UBLIQUE DU CA NADA VOLUME 52 , NO. 4 (DE CEMBER/DECE MB RE 20 09) , P P. 549 –56 8 r The Institute of Public Administration of Canada/L’Institut d’administration publique du Canada 2009 les services fournis par le gouvernement. Cela laisse egalement entendre que certains Canadiens pourraient etre prets a sacrifier l’efficience afin de preserver ou renforcer l’autonomie et l’identite locales et que ceux d’entre eux qui ont une conception instrumentale du federalisme pourraient envisager des changements radicaux au sujet de qui fait quoi si cela signifie une prestation plus efficace des biens publics. Enfin, cette analyse donne a penser que, pour certains citoyens, le critere cle pour evaluer une proposition de prestation de biens publics est beaucoup moins l’efficience mais avant tout (ou du moins tout autant) le federalisme et le renforcement des institutions et des pratiques de la federation. Citizen-centred federalism avoids the clash over ideas by starting at the other end of the spectrum. It focuses our attention on how a service is delivered (Ambrose, Lenihan, and Milloy