These agencies are free from some of the rigidities that characterize traditional departments, and are intended to deliver a more flexible and responsive service to the public. Other experiments with new models are to be found in New Zealand, Australia, the U.S. - even in France, which has long been one of the most centralized countries in the world. Governments in Canada have been more hesitant about wholesale re-structuring, although the creation of three major new agencies in the areas of food inspection, parks, and revenue collection are of some significance. On the other hand, they have moved more aggressively than any country I know of in the consolidation of service delivery by different levels of government. The Burlington Resource Centre has brought together the delivery of income support and social services programs by officials of the Regional Municipality of Halton, the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services, and the federal Department of Human Resources Development.
Similar examples are increasingly to be found all across the country.
In the federal government there is now a program of annual awards for imaginative approaches to improving service delivery. All of this would no doubt meet with nods of approval from any audience. There is however an underlying difficulty that merits attention. Giving officials more autonomy does not just mean freeing them from the dictates of the Financial Administration Act and the Public Service Employment Act. It also requires an ability to work out accomodations with contending local groups, and to tailor programs and operational decisions to meet local conditions.