Abstract

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) -- a new department that houses the government's major common service organizations (CSOs) -- is in the middle of dramatic restructuring. PWGSC has focused much of its attention on internal difficulties created after the department's establishment in June 1993. Changes to the government's policy on provision of common services, aimed at breaking up CSO monopolies on service delivery within government, have also created financial and political difficulties for the department, and provoked widespread doubts about the rationale for maintaining government-run common service organizations. Several recent reviews, including the 1994-95 program review exercise, have responded to these internal and external challenges. These reviews have remedied weaknesses in the 1993 reorganization plan but have been less successful in producing strong arguments for preserving the major CSOs. The department will be downsized substantially over the next five years.