Public Services Mandate Letter

The Minister of Public Services should have a clear mandate: increase public service productivity by 20%

Dear Minister,

Canadians have given us a clear mandate: to grow our economy, strengthen our sovereignty and build a country that works for everyone. They are ready to build Canada. Now, we must deliver. 

Our path forward is ambitious – and it must be. Global instability, and the accelerating pace of technological changes are testing our resilience. But Canadians are not afraid of hard work, nor are they afraid to take risks. They believe in fairness, in unity, and in building an abundant future for all Canadians. This government must match their resolve with urgency, discipline, and ambition.

I expect all Ministers to remain focused on their core mandate. Every ministry has clear goals focused on delivering better services and driving economic growth, while doing both with the efficiency and excellence Canadians deserve. That means setting clear goals, with measurable outcomes, and being relentless in execution. 

I expect Ministers to fulfill their mandates at a pace this country has not seen in recent history. Canadians expect and deserve change. It is the responsibility of our entire government to remove any roadblocks quickly and ensure the smooth and fast implementation of our priorities.

I expect you to do this by recruiting top talent, adopting best practices from around the world, and leveraging modern tools wherever possible, including artificial intelligence. Above all we must be ruthlessly pragmatic. If our policies are not achieving the results that Canadians deserve then we must change direction to achieve our goals. Through this, we can build a more modern government that delivers better results more efficiently. 

As Minister of Public Services, you will fundamentally reimagine how the government operates to meet the complex challenges of our time. The federal public service has grown by over 100,000 employees so that now the federal government workforce-to-population ratio for the country is .92%, up from 0.72% in 2015. This is the largest proportion since the 1970s. At the same time, there has been an insufficient focus on outcomes. Only 16% of citizens feel like they get good value from government services. Programs and processes aren't working efficiently, and our productivity lags behind both the private sector and other advanced economies.

To build Canada into the strongest economy in the G7, we must first transform how the government itself works. This means leveraging cutting-edge technologies, adopting world-class management practices, and building a culture of outcome-focused excellence across the public service. A modernized, agile government will deliver better services to Canadians while spending less on operations so we can invest more in building the future of our country.

Your mission is to fundamentally reimagine how the government operates so that it can move with precision and purpose. Your success will be measured by how effectively we deliver services to Canadians, with a key goal of achieving a 20% increase in public service productivity by 2028 by delivering the same or better services at lower cost.

Your tasks:

  • Transform government operations to deliver better outcomes at lower cost
    • Establish a dedicated Office of Digital Transformation at the centre of government to streamline service delivery and cut red tape by October 2025 to eliminate 25 % of regulatory barriers to growth by 2027
    • Launch a comprehensive, outcomes-focused spending review that links money to results and redeploys savings to frontline services, with the first plan completed by December 2025 with an overall cost reduction of 20%
    • Build in-house digital and analytic expertise to replace external contracts and advisory spend to cut reliance on external consultants by 30 % by 2027
    • Stand up a “One Window” Major Federal Project Office in Q1 2026 to deliver final regulatory decisions within two years, cut approval times by 50% and project delays by 40%
  • Leverage artificial intelligence to boost productivity
    • Deploy AI tools to address government service backlogs and improve service delivery times across 50% of citizen-facing with an aim to cut turnaround times by 30 % by 2027
    • Create an AI implementation stream inside the Office of Digital Transformation by Q4 2025 and train 200 specialists in AI integration
  • Modernize government procurement to drive innovation and value
    • Roll out a made-in-Canada procurement strategy that raises the share of Canadian suppliers and supply chains in federal contracts to 25 % by Q2 2026 no increase in cost or loss of service quality
    • Establish a new Defence Procurement Agency by Q1 2026 to centralize expertise and speed up military acquisitions reducing average timelines by 40 %
    • Embed Buy-Canadian standards in federal infrastructure programs by Q3 2025 with an aim for at least 50% domestic steel, aluminum and forestry content
  • Build a world-class public service
    • Cap federal public-service head-count at current levels while investing in upskilling and digital literacy.
    • Require every department to publish outcome-focused performance dashboards in its 2026-27 Departmental Plan with 100 % departmental coverage by 2026.

We all know that our country could be so much more than it is. We have the land, the talent, the know-how, and the energy to be the most prosperous nation on earth. And our people have a spirit that could take them anywhere they want to go.

Now let’s build it.

Signed,

Prime Minister

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Note: Italicized figures are added by Build Canada

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