Practical Innovation in Government

5

What Transforming a Large Organization Involves: The Case of New Brunswick

Note: This chapter draws in part from an article we wrote for the Journal of Government Financial Management. We are grateful to the journal for permission to incorporate that material here.¹

In 2011, the Canadian Province of New Brunswick faced a severe budget crisis. To address it, the provincial government cut the budget of every department (i.e., ministry) by 7.5 percent. Most deputy ministers (the civil-service department heads) were able to cover much of the shortfall with the usual “cut-and-control” tactics: reducing travel and training, freezing hiring, restricting overtime, deferring maintenance and capital expenditures, and taking other short-term actions ...