Ingrid Peignier presents the results of a large-scale consultation with young members of Quebec’s public service

On May 11, Ingrid Peignier, Senior Director of Partnerships and Research Valorization at CIRANO, took part in the official opening of the annual conference of the Forum des jeunes de la fonction publique québécoise, held under the theme “The Public Service at the Speed of Thought,” alongside Dominique Savoie, honorary president of the Forum.

Bringing together more than 400 participants both in person and online, the event provided a valuable opportunity to reflect on the challenges of performance, innovation, and transformation within Quebec’s public service.

Ingrid Peignier presented, for the first time, the results of the 2026 consultation conducted by the Forum des jeunes de la fonction publique québécoise. This large-scale consultation gathered responses from 4,325 young public servants representing 68 ministries and government agencies, offering an unprecedented portrait of the next generation of Quebec’s public service.

Among the key findings, the results reveal a significant gap between perceptions of innovation at the team level and perceptions of the public service as an institution. Managers received an average innovation score of 7.19/10, compared with only 4.95/10 for the public service as a whole.

The consultation also highlights that while collaboration is viewed positively within teams, interdepartmental collaboration remains a major challenge: only 26% of respondents believe that communication mechanisms between ministries and agencies are effective.

In terms of retention, the results show that 62% of respondents wish to remain in the public service. The analyses also demonstrate that young public servants who clearly perceive the impact of their work are twice as likely to want to stay in the public service and 2.5 times more likely to view their work environment as innovative. The feeling of making a tangible contribution to improving public services emerged as the main driver of both retention and innovation.

These findings fueled numerous discussions throughout the day and were referenced by several panelists, including Danièle Cantin, Secretary of the Treasury Board, and Hugo Cyr, Director General of ENAP, to illustrate the challenges and levers for action facing Quebec’s public service.

CIRANO is proud to have contributed to this initiative, which helps better understand the expectations, aspirations, and concerns of the next generation while providing evidence-based data to support the transformation of public organizations.