York University

School of Public Policy and Administration

AP/PPAS 3190 6.00 S3 B
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Summer 2017

ASSIGNMENT #5 DEPUTY MINISTER CASE STUDY Due June 6 (10% of

final grade)

This assignment is composed of two parts. The response for Part A is to be at least 500
words. The response to Part B is to be at least 200 words. In writing the responses be sure
to place yourself in the position of deputy minister of the ministry. That is, you are that
person.

No additional research is required, but you must have reviewed the required readings for
our course before commencing the case study.

PART A

You are deputy minister of the Ministry of Social Services in the Ontario government.
The governing party is in the last few months of its mandate, with an election expected to
be called within the next three months. The polls show that the opposition party will win
a landslide victory.

The minister has just called you into her office. She represents a downtown Toronto
riding within which is located a large (32 full-time staff, 15 part-time and several dozen
volunteers) community agency, Skills First. This agency provides job and language
training and related services for the unemployed and recent immigrants, especially for
women and single parents. Skills First is widely acknowledged to be a well-run
organization that has garnered a number of national and international awards for its work.

On several occasions over the past four years, Skills First has approached the Ministry of
Social Services with a request for $7 million to allow it to purchase the building and land
that is currently occupies. On each occasion, the ministry has rejected the request for two
reasons.

First, it has been a long standing policy of the ministry not to provide funds for capital
costs (for the purchase of buildings, cars, land, etc.). Rather the ministry only provides
operational funds to agencies, such as for salaries, rent, program supplies, etc. This policy
has been strictly adhered to because to provide funds for one agency to purchase its
building would set a precedent.There have been a few exceptions over the decades to the
policy of not providing capital funding. For instance, when a building has been willed to
an agency for a small amount of money, or in remote Northern communities where only
one building would be available and suitable for a community agency. It has consistently
been the ministrys policy that government funds should be used to provide direct
services for clients, not for the purchase of land and buildings.

Second, as the minister is the elected member of the riding in which the Skills First is
located, the optics of the ministry purchasing the building for it would be particularly
vexing. In other words, the minister and ministry would be accused of favouritism.

Several days ago the executive director of Skills First had dinner with the minister. At
this dinner, the executive director made a personal request to the minister for $7 million
to purchase the building and land.

In your meeting with the minister you again stress that it is long standing ministry policy
not to provide capital funding to community agencies (and review the reasons for this and
the danger of setting a precedent). You also indicate that the optics surrounding granting
the $7 million are particularly extremely problematic for the ministry, the government
and the minister given that the agency is in the ministers constituency (riding). Lastly,
you have point out that even if a new government was to dramatically decrease funding
for community agencies, Skills First is not at risk of closure. As with many community
agencies, it also receives funds for the federal and municipal governments and thus would
continue to operate without the current level of provincial funding, albeit with fewer staff
and services.

Nevertheless, the minister is convinced that providing the $7 million is the right thing
to do, especially in light of the election platform of the opposition party and the widely
acknowledged excellence of the agency. The minister agrees that even with a change in
government Skills First will not be forced to close, but its services would likely be
curtailed. The minister is determined that Skills First be placed in a long-term stable
financial position by allowing it to own the building and land. Furthermore, Skills First
has convinced the minister that the opportunity to buy its own building may not arise
again. Notwithstanding your comments, the meeting with the minister concludes with her
telling you to ensure that Skills First is able to acquire its building within the mandate of
my government.

What do you do? Why so?

Issues to consider:

1. FUNDING

It is January 14 and the government fiscal (budget) year will end on March 31. In the
Estimates approved by the Legislature this past summer, there was no money allocated
for the purchase of buildings for community agencies by the ministry. As such, you have
two choices about how to obtain the $7 million to purchase (should you in fact decide to
do so):

2
i. The $7 million will be added to the Supplementary Estimates that will go to the
Legislature for approval in seven weeks in early March. If the $7 million is included in
the Supplementary Estimates, the request will be scrutinized by the opposition parties and
possibly also the media.

ii. Re-allocate $7 million from within the approved budget of the ministry. This would
involve not undertaking $7 million of activities that had been planned and using this
money to purchase the Skills First building. Although such a reallocation is possible with
approval of Treasury Board, it might be deemed inappropriate or irregular by the
Provincial Auditor (should the Provincial Auditor conduct an audit of the ministry in the
fall or next year).

2. MINISTER RE-ELECTION

The minister will campaign for re-election in her riding, in a race that is expected to be
very tight. Candidates that are seen to be acquiring resources for their riding typically
receive increased support from voters.

3. YOUR CAREER

You are a long-serving civil servant who has only recently been appointed deputy
minister. It is your desire to continue as deputy minister for many years into the future.

3
PART B

All aspects of case study #1 remain unchanged. However, the request to the minister by
Skills First is for a loan guarantee to purchase its building. As such, the minister has
asked you to ensure that the ministry co-sign a loan with a commercial bank for $7
million. In other words, the ministry will be the guarantor for the $7 million mortgage
that Skills First will assume. The ministry has never in the past undertaken such an
arrangement.

In the short term (the next year) there would be no money required from the ministry.
However, in the longer-term, given the variability of the agencys budget, it may well be
the case that the ministry will need to provide some funds to make the mortgage
payments.

What do you do? Why so?