Ralph Heintzman

 

Biographical Notes

Ralph Heintzman
Adjunct Research Professor
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
University of Ottawa
and
Senior Fellow
Massey College
University of Toronto

Ralph Heintzman is Adjunct Research Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and Senior Fellow of Massey College in the University of Toronto. He is also Chair of the Service Certification Board of the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service Delivery. Born in Toronto and educated at the University of Toronto (B.A. 1965, M.A. 1968) and at York University (Ph.D. 1977), his career has spanned the university, research and government worlds.

In the Government of Canada he held senior executive positions in a variety of departments and agencies, including Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet for Federal-Provincial Relations, and Assistant Secretary in the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. During this time he was responsible, among other things, for:

  • development and passage of the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, unanimously approved by Parliament in 2005;
  • coordination of an integrity and accountability package for the Government of Canada, including a Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service and a Management Accountability Framework (MAF); 
  • launching both the Service Canada and Service Improvement initiatives, as well as the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service;
  • creating the action research program on Citizen-Centred Service Delivery, which won the IPAC Gold Award for innovative management in 1999, and the CAPAM Silver Award for innovation in 2000.

He also served, among other capacities, as the founding chair of the Public Sector Service Delivery Council; Vice-Chair of the Task Force on Public Service Values and Ethics; and Associate Constitutional Advisor to the Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons on a Renewed Canada. The Public Sector Service Delivery Council, the Public Sector CIO Council and the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service created the Heintzman Leadership Award in his honour in 2003. In 2006, Mr. Heintzman was awarded the Vanier Medal, Canada’s highest honour in public administration, by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada.

Mr. Heintzman has taught at Trent University and at the University of Ottawa. From 1970 to 1980, he served as Editor/Associate Editor of the Journal of Canadian Studies. From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Heintzman served as Executive Director/Director-General, Programs of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In addition to the Journal of Canadian Studies, he has also contributed articles to other learned journals, including the Canadian Historical Review, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Public Administration, Optimum, and the International Review of Administrative Sciences. His writing has also been included in a number of edited collections, including two manuals of prose style.