Task force of ex-CEOs, public servants to advise government on public service reform

OTTAWA — Some former CEOs and senior public servants have assembled a task force to advise the federal government on how it can make better decisions and be more accountable in key areas.

The nine-member task force includes a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a former CEO of energy giant Trans Mountain Corporation and former deputy ministers in several departments.

The Task Force for Modernizing Government, launched Thursday, says it wants to improve how the federal public service gets things done.

In a press release, the group says it will consider reforms in three priority areas: digital government and AI, major projects and Arctic sovereignty.

“In each area, the task force will consider what changes can be made for faster, simplified decision-making, more agile operational implementation, better internal and external coordination, and clearer accountabilities with results,” says the release.

“In doing so, it will identify the big horizontal issues and barriers across government affecting coherence and effectiveness in moving these and other priorities ahead.”

The group says it’s planning to give Ottawa independent advice on how to simplify decision-making, co-ordinate internally and modernize the public service. It says it has a yearlong mandate.

Its financial backers include the Clean Economy Fund, the Hewitt Foundation, the Ivey Foundation and the Jarislowsky Foundation.

The task force’s executive director is David McLaughlin, former provincial clerk, cabinet secretary, deputy minister and chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Its members include: Ian Anderson, former president and CEO of Trans Mountain Corporation; Peter Wallace, former secretary of the Treasury Board of Canada and former head of the Ontario Public Service; and Jody Thomas, former deputy minister of national defence and national security adviser to Trudeau.

McLaughlin said he has been working on forming the group for more than a year and that he’s been worried about how governments deliver services since he was clerk of the executive council in the government of Manitoba during the COVID pandemic.

“The whole pandemic experience sharpened for me, and I think for many others, that the public service is not designed on an ongoing basis to be proactive,” he said. “It can come together in an emergency, but that’s wartime. It’s peacetime configuration and way of doing business is not really what Canadians want or expect and it’s not where government needs to be as an institution.”

McLaughlin said Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has big ambitions and that the Liberals will need help in figuring out the right way to organize itself to get things done. While the government had no role in striking the task force or assigning its members, he said the government is aware of its launch and he’s optimistic it will be open to considering the group’s advice.

Rather than waiting to deliver recommendations at the end of its mandate, McLaughlin said the group will share advice for the government throughout the year. He said that information will be made available to the public.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2026.

Sarah Ritchie and Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press