Firing people is onerous and unappealing, but done systematically it would improve productivity, lower the wage bill and boost public confidence.

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Growing up in Vancouver in the 1980s meant you knew at least one aspect of the reputation of Jim Pattison. Today, he is around the 200th richest person in the world with a net wealth of more than $9 billion. Back then, he was primarily a car dealer and his reputation was that he fired the lowest-performing salesperson on each of his lots every month.

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Imagine even a smidgen of that managerial teeth in the federal public service.

Mel Cappe, a former clerk of the Privy Council, famously said it was “too hard to hire and too hard to fire in the public service.” He’s still right, but only on the latter count.

There are many reasons for that, including poor training for public-service managers, especially in dealing with problem employees; few incentives for employees to better their performance; few effective approaches to force underperforming employees to improve; and an overall lack of drive to reduce the size of the public service, though Mark Carney says he will cap........

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