Although the Privy Council Office has grown in size and complexity over the years, its main pillars remain the operations and plans secretariats. The former is primarily concerned with coordinating the day-to-day issues of government while the latter takes a medium-term view to the evolution of the Canadian federation. Each incoming prime minister will re-organize the Privy Council Office to suit the policy agenda of their government. Today, the Privy Council Office includes a department of intergovernmental affairs, secretariats for communications, foreign and defence policy, security and intelligence, social affairs, economic affairs, legislation and house planning and machinery of government.
Traditionally, the Privy Council Office has served as a "finishing school" for civil servants destined for executive positions within government. Officials who spend several years gaining experience at the Privy Council Office, and working on policy matters from the perspective of the prime minister, return to their home departments with a greater appreciation of government operations at the corporate level. Aside from senior positions within the civil service, Privy Council Office alumni have gone on to pursue successful careers in business and politics, including Paul Tellier, former chief executive officer of Bombardier; Michael Sabia, chief executive officer of Bell Canada; Robert Rabinovitch, chief executive officer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau; and former Minister of Foreign AffairsPierre Pettigrew.
The head of the civil service has the title of clerk of the Privy Council, and also serves as the secretary to the Cabinet and deputy minister to the prime minister.
The Privy Council Office's role is different from that of the Prime Minister's Office, which is a personal and partisan office. It is understood that the prime minister should not receive advice from only one institutionalized source. To that end, the Privy Council Office serves as the policy-oriented but politically neutral advisory unit to the prime minister, while the Prime Minister's Office is politically oriented but policy-sensitive.
As of 2017, the Privy Council Office's Impact and Innovation Unit manages the Impact Canada behavioural sciences platform in partnership with other departments of the Government of Canada.[5][6][7]
Current structure of the Privy Council Office[edit]
