In an ideal political system, the convention of ministerial responsibility would be absolute, meaning that a minister would resign as soon as their department committed a wrongful act. In England, that's how it works, but I'm not sure whether the responsibility is consistently applied, as was the case a few decades ago. Conversely, in the U.S., the responsibility lies at the bureaucratic level, and the government is not responsible for anything.
My comment transcends all partisanship and all government parties. Is the whistle-blower problem in Canada not due to the fact that absolute ministerial responsibility no longer exists? In other words, ministers don't step down when problems occur in their departments, unless the media outcry is strong enough.
We don't follow the honourable convention whereby a minister resigns when their department makes a mistake. Ironically, departments have an internal mechanism where employees have to first report the wrongdoing to a designated person, who then notifies the deputy minister. The deputy minister, in turn, notifies the minister. That chain of command is doomed to fail because everyone knows the minister will do everything in their power to push the blame down the chain, because they don't want to resign.
The problem is due to the fact that Canada does not follow the constitutional convention of the Westminster system. Is it not?