GD Cards

Question 0

What is the mandate of Public a Safety Canada?

Answer 0

Our mandate is to keep Canadians safe from a range of risks such as natural disasters, crime and terrorism.

Question 1

What is the Strategic Outcome of Public Safety Canada?

Answer 1

A safe and resilient Canada.

Question 2

What does Public Safety do?

Answer 2

We work with our portfolio partners, other levels of government, first responders, community groups, the private sector and other nations, on national security, border strategies, countering crime and emergency management issues and other safety and security initiatives, such as the National Information Exchange Model.

Question 3

What are some of our National Security activities?

Answer 3

Counter-terrorism, critical infrastructure, Cyber Security

Question 4

What are PS’ border strategies activities?

Answer 4

BTB, Border Law Enforcement, immigration enforcement

Question 5

What is BTB?

Answer 5

The border partnership between Canada and the United States is built on a perimeter approach to security and economic competitiveness. In order to enhance our security and accelerate the legitimate flow of people, goods and services, the strategy works beyond the border to strengthen cooperation and pursue shared goals.

Question 6

What are PS’ countering crime activities?

Answer 6

Policing, Aboriginal Policing, Crime Prevention, Corrections, Organized Crime, Gun Crimes, Human Trafficking

Question 7

What are PS’ Emergency Management Activities?

Answer 7

Prevention and mitigation, emergency response coordination, disaster recovery (financial assistance I.e. DFAA)

Question 8

What is the GOC?

Answer 8

It’s the principal means by which the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness’ leadership role in establishing an integrated approach to emergency response is exercised. It supports response coordination of events affecting the national interest. It brings all partners into a common environment to harmonize and synchronize collective actions of those partners. The GOC operates 24/7 to provide watch, warning, analysis, planning, logistics support and coordination across the federal government and with its partners, including provincial and territorial governments, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and international partners.

Question 9

What are the priorities at PS?

Answer 9

Cyber Strategy and renewed critical infrastructure action plan, public awareness on Cyber Security and Cyber bullying, counter-terrorism strategy (inc releasing the second report on terrorist threats to canada), BTB (particularly pre-clearance negotiations), NDMP (community resilience), economics of policing and other efficiency and effectivness efforts in the criminal justice system, departmental realignment as well as management and governance improvements.

Question 10

What Are Public Safety’s Program Activities?

Answer 10

National Security, Border Strategies, Countering Crime, Emergency Management …..and Internal Services.

Question 11

In the department, the management of Security requires the continuous assessment of ___________ and the implementation, monitoring and maintenance of appropriate internal management controls involving prevention (mitigation), detection, response and recovery.

Answer 11

RISK

Question 12

The expected results of the Policy on Government Security are that

Answer 12

Information, assets and services are protected against compromise and individuals are protected against workplace violence.

Question 13

The management of security is most effective when it is woven it is systematically…

Answer 13

Woven into the business, programs and culture of a department.

Question 14

Name some areas of security:

Answer 14

Identify management, physical security, screening, IT security, Emergency and business continuity

Question 15

As a lead security agency, what is Public Safety Canada’s responsibility?

Answer 15

Coordinating activities related to emergencies (which include IT incidents) affected the GC and provides leadership in the area of emergency management, which includes the continuity of operations and IT incident management.

Question 16

As par of the baseline security requirement of the Government Security Policy, departments must establish a Business Continuity Plan program to provide for the availability of:

Answer 16

a. Services and associated assets critical to the health, safety, security and economic well-being of Canadians, or the effective functioning of government.
b. Other services and assets warranted by a threat and risk assessment.

Question 17

The four elements of a BCP program are:

Answer 17

1. Establishment of BCP Program governance
2. The conduct of business impact analysis
3. The Development of business continuity plans and arrangements
4. The maintenance of BCP program readiness

Question 18

What is a Business Impact Analysis?

Answer 18

Through consultation, it assesses the impacts of disruptions on the department and to identify and prioritize critical services and associated assets.

Question 19

_____________________ is the function of allocating and reallocating resources to new and existing assets and acquired services that are essential to program delivery.

Answer 19

Departmental Investment Planning

Question 20

Effective management of Departmental assets and acquired services includes:

Answer 20

1. Developing a departmental investment plan
2. Exercising oversight in the implementation of investment decisions.
3. Ensuring appropriate measurement of investment performance

Question 21

What are acquired services?

Answer 21

Services obtained through formal arrangements, such as contracts, memorandum of understanding and letters of agreement.

Question 22

What is the objective of the Policy on Investment Planning?

Answer 22

To contribute to the achievement of value for money and sound stewardship in government program delivery through effective investment planning.

Question 23

What is the objective of the Policy on Management of Materiel?

Answer 23

That materiel be managed by departments in a sustainable and financially responsible manner that supports cost-effective and efficient delivery of programs.

Question 24

What is meant by “materiel” in Material Management Policy?

Answer 24

All moveable assets, excluding money and records, acquired by her majesty in right of Canada.

Question 25

Provide an example of where you upheld value and ethics?

Answer 25

One of employees I had here was a very negative person. Tended to get mad …tended to be the person spouting about the general stupidity of others…BS nature of things that displeased him. It was impacting the team. Discussion about behaviour with him, discussed with manager, guided him into discussions with LR, dealt with specific issues when they happened. Issued him an informal letter, this helped for a time but I was still hearing a lot of back channel talk about the same behaviour. Manager was not seeing it as he was too far. We had a new staff member come in so we took the opportunity to move the manager beside him for training - whih also put him in earshot of the employee. He and I spoke to him as issues came up: example of (whatever, I don’t care -to the manager). My approach to frame it in terms of what I would mean if I acted that way.

Question 26

Provide an example of where you demonstrated Engagement

Answer 26

FMA Action Plan: Upon arrival…gap in what the FMAs expected of themselves and what me and my managers expected of them. From their perspective, the FMA function was a challenge function to the transactional work being done by branches. In short, make sure the numbers add up and match something in the system where appropriate, and provide advice on the interpretation of policy (i.e. can you file that particular travel claim). The workload volume was highly predictable and for the most part, really clear. When I came in, Mark wanted to see us implement a culture of ongoing reallocation, and part of that was getting a sense of where we might look for funding that we could reallocate. As I had in previous jobs, I went to my finance advisors but to my surprise, the answer I got was to just ask the responsible ADMs to tell us as they had no idea. Frankly, the more I attempted to explore the data with them (looking at lapse and transfer histories to help bring them along), the more annoyed they became with me. This was simply not their job and the disconnect was frustrating me, and as I came to see from an internal audit, it was also frustrating the ADMs. This was frustrating of course and I spent quite a few nights doing the analysis myself and coming up with ideas we could use. This was however untenable - I needed a strategy. What I quickly came to realize was that I had changed the definition of “good”. They went from knowing what a good job meant (if this number adds to that total, I did well) to being pushed out into a gray zone of analysis and opinions, often with incomplete variables. Its a slow process but we met on the issue several times and came up with the following strategy: FMA manual…ideas to look for….FI2s to take on transactions work….getting to know their client’s business by being more involved…staffing new hires with a different perspective…new performance goals….setting up meetings with ADMs on the quality of the service.

Smaller examples include TEDx, Dalhousie, GTEC, Daily log at RMD and Comp

Question 27

Provide an example of where you demonstrated management excellence.

Answer 27

Targeted Review.

Question 28

Provide an example of where you demonstrated strategic thinking.

Answer 28

Pressures Exercise: Fat Corporate, advised on the 5% exercise, culture of reallocation

Question 29

What were some key Acheivements from the RIMC job?

Answer 29

1. Strategic Investment Plan: Connie Roveto Award.
2. Mandatory consultation with internal services.
3. Running the Secretariat
4. RIM-See

Question 30

What were some key achievements from the Compensation job.

Answer 30

1. Performance Monitoring System.
2. Daily communication log.
3. The bubble chart of all known issues and the steps required to get them addressed.
4. Employee not fit to work

Question 31

What were some key acheivements from the RMD Director job?

Answer 31

1. Targeted Review
2. Quebec Costing for GST
3. Weekly Communication log
4. CPP/EI
5. Cost savings ideas and Benchmarking research databases

Question 32

Name the Agencies in the Public Safety portfolio.

Answer 32

PS, RCMP, CBSA, CSIS, CSC, PBS, RCMP, ERC, CPC and OCI.

Question 33

How many regional offices do we have?

Answer 33

5

Question 34

What is the objective of the contracting policy?

Answer 34

To acquire goods and services and to carry out construction in a manner that enhances access, competition and fairness and results in best value or, if appropriate, the optimal balance of of overall benefits to the Crown and the Canadian people.

Question 35

Government contracting shall be conducted in a manner that will:

Answer 35

A. Stand the test of public scrutiny
B. Facilitate access and encourage competition
C. Ensure the pre-eminence of operational requirements
D. Support long-term industrial, regional and other appropriate objectives (such as aboriginal economic development)
E. Comply with Gov obligations under North American Free trade, WTO agreements

Question 36

Contracting: Best value does not necessarily mean lowest bid. Other factors include:

Answer 36

1. Life Cycle Costs
2. Initial Costs
3. Time to deliver the product.
4. Quality.
5. Socio Economic factors (aboriginal procurement, green procurement)

Question 37

In accordance with the TB Contracting Policy, all purchasing and contracting activities must:

Answer 37

1. Provide best value in terms of quality, service, cost, availability and performance.
2. Stand the test of public scrutiny on matters of probity and prudence.
3. Facilitate access and encourage competition.
4. Reflect fairness in the spending of public funds
5. Comply with trade agreements

Question 38

What is the governing principle of the contracting policy?

Answer 38

Integrity. Subordinate to this are best value, competition and accountability.

Question 39

When can we go with a sole source contract?

Answer 39

1. Pressing emergency where the delay would be injurious to the public interest.
2. Under 25K
3. Where the nature of the work is such that it is not in the public interest to solicit bids.
4. Where only one person or firm is capable of performing the contract.

Question 40

Contracting: If only one person can do the job, what does TBS require us to do?

Answer 40

As a series of questions (to be documented in the file) -is it linked to a previous procurement strategy, who has the IP, why the price is fair and reasonable, what led to the recommendation for a non-competitive process.

Question 41

What are the two essential roles of Public Safety Canada?

Answer 41

(i) support the Minister’s responsibility for all matters, except those assigned to another federal minister, related to public safety and emergency management, including national leadership; and (ii) coordinate the efforts of Public Safety Portfolio agencies (outlined below), as well as provide guidance on their strategic priorities.

Question 42

The department delivers grant and contribution programs related to:

Answer 42

Emergency management, national security, and community safety.

Question 43

What key improvements to management and governance is the department seeking?

Answer 43

budget planning, financial management, human resources integration, and departmental procurement and accommodation planning.

Question 44

Name some key risks facing the department.

Answer 44

1. Rising costs of disasters
2. Limitations of the GOC
3. Sustainability of crime prevention strategies

Question 45

What is the planned spending for 2014-15?

Answer 45

About $1.2B (including G&Cs).

Question 46

What are the Economic Action Plan priorities?

Answer 46

1. Responsible resource development
2. BTB Action Plan (Part of Perimeter Security and Economic Comp)
3. Support for workers and the unemployed
4. Building Canada’s North

Question 47

What are the Prime Minister’s priorities?

Answer 47

1. Supporting families and communities
2. Stimulating our economy (BTB)
3. Returning to balance (Implementing cuts, Economics of policing, NDMP)
4. Staying the course on long-term priorities (cracking down on gun, gang and drug crime)

Question 48

Why are you the best candidate for the job?

Answer 48

1. Broad experience: Not all one thing, which mirrors corporate ser.
2. Proven track record: talk to them all
3. I love being in a constant learning mode. I did my MPA part-time while working.
4. Strong people skills
5. Strong Communicator
6. I work well under pressure and appropriate to the audience

Question 49

If you get the job, what are you going to do first?

Answer 49

1. Start learning the core material
2. Get to know the people
3. Assess current priorities & deliverables, and what they are tied to
4. Assess the state of staffing and budgets.
5. Alignment to GOC, Toronto Project, Workplace 2.0
6. Alignment to government moves on corporate services

Question 50

What are your long term goals for the directorate?

Answer 50

1. Succession planning
2. Red tape review
3. Staff satisfaction
4. Client service

Question 51

Tell me about a time when you deal with a conflict?

Answer 51

People yelling at the G&C folks

Question 52

Tell me about a time when you dealt with a difficult situation?

Answer 52

Compensation - Not fit to work.

Question 53

You have more priorities than resources. What are your options?

Answer 53

Re-examine existing costs / Descope projects / Defer purchases / Seek help from other areas / Re-negotiate expectations / adjust levels of service / seek funding from the center / explore new savings opportunities / explore cost-recovery options etc.

Question 54

What is the EX way of breaking down problems?

Answer 54

GOSPA: Goals, Objectives, Strategies, Process/Policies, Activities

Question 55

Who do you consult with when trying to solve problems?

Answer 55

The cross: My boss, collegues, key stakeholders, unions, staff

Question 56

What is your leadership style?

Answer 56

Broadly, I am a collaborative leader. I find that the most of our difficult problems tend to be best resolved by getting a range of experience and perspectives involved. I maintain a broad network of contacts through my prior jobs, CAP/EXDP, Direxion, Dalhousie University, MDP and I look for opportunities, through brainstorming sessions and one-on-one to bring out solutions from the group. I am a big believer in what social media can do to bring it to an even broader scale. I let managers manage and hold them to account for their programs. I am also their advocate and shield

Question 56

What are unique clahhenges of the department?

Answer 56

unique clahhenges of the department

• workplace culture (poor management of people)
• solving issues at the ADM level
• Adversion to risk
• Negative view of corporate services
• Poor reallocation culture