The ''Civil Service Act, 1918'' was an Act of the

Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada (french: Parlement du Canada) is the federal legislature of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and is composed of three parts: the King, the Senate, and the House of Commons. By constitutional convention, the ...

that following the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The Act initiated a number of reforms to be made to the Civil Service of Canada and had implications on how Canadian

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

unfolded over the following decades. The Act was amended in 1938 and 1961. In 1967, the Act was replaced by the ''Public Service Employment Act 1967'' and ''Public Service Staff Relations Act''. The two Acts were amended by the ''Public Service Reform Act'' 1992. The ''Public Service Employment Act'' 1967 was itself replaced by the ''Public Service Employment Act'' 2003.

Background

In 1911, a number of members of the

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

business community made a proposal to the then leader of the opposition,

Robert Borden Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I. Borde ...

. In the proposal, they agreed to support Borden in the upcoming

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

if he instituted reforms in the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. Those who lobbied for the reforms made the argument that until then the Civil Service of Canada had been inefficient largely as a result of

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

. Under a patronage system, the civil service had a tendency to go through a larger turnover than otherwise, as it is largely replaced following the formation of every new government. The direct result of this is a more limited expertise on the part of those occupying important government positions, decreasing

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

and efficiency in government. More specifically, it was argued that this inefficient organization of the civil service reduced the international

comparative advantage In an economic model, agents have a comparative advantage over others in producing a particular good if they can produce that good at a lower relative opportunity cost or autarky price, i.e. at a lower relative marginal cost prior to trade. Comp ...

of Canada, having negative implications on the financial interests of Canadian businesses. They saw a more professional and skilled civil service as being conducive with these interests.

The Act

A cornerstone of the Act was to shift away from these patronage-based appointments towards

merit Merit may refer to: Religion * Merit (Christianity) * Merit (Buddhism) * Punya (Hinduism) * Imputed righteousness in Reformed Christianity Companies and brands * Merit (cigarette), a brand of cigarettes made by Altria * Merit Energy Company, ...

-based appointments to the civil service. Specifically, the Act called for a Civil Service Commission, which was later renamed the Public Service Commission of Canada, to oversee all appointments to the public service, as means of detaching the politicians from the appointment process. Competitive exams were introduced with the commission to ensure competency among the service. In addition, much of the civil service was reorganized, and the job-classification system was overhauled.

Effects

The Act led to a more professional, competent and skilled Canadian civil service. Moreover, the decreased turn-over associated with merit-based civil service results in a bureaucracy with interests more aligned with national, as opposed to partisan-political, well-being.

References

{{Canada-law-stub 1918 in Canadian law Canadian federal legislation Government of Canada Political history of Canada

Background

The Act

Effects

See also

References