There are briefing books from the Department of Finance (always a concern for Pitfield, who monitored effectiveness of costing services), some polling survey results (unfavourable to the Liberals on which Pitfield commented), and correspondence. The correspondence deals with issues such as pension reform, ministerial staff budgets and the need to improve Canadian business efficiency, along with considerations of how government policy could do this. These were essentially economic / budgetary concerns, crucial questions at a time when the country was experiencing a mini-recession and talk was about a "6% society" under wage-and price controls. Other correspondence deals with high government officials and effectiveness, with access to government papers, with improving governance through a co-ordinating committee of deputy ministers and government experts. Yet other correspondence deals with a cabinet shuffle, the structure of the Federal-Provincial Relations Office [FPRO] and issues affecting federalism. There is substantial commentary on the Quebec situation and sovereignty, with input from Michael Kirby, a key player later in the Patriation of the Canadian constitution. There are also Pitfield memoranda here, addressing, inter alia, matters such as cabinet organization, the PMs meetings with persons of note and preparations for a First Minister's conference, with files on the FPRO and Pitfield's leadership in this office. As with most of Pitfield's material, little comment is required about its significance. In short, he wrote from the very centre of government, a key figure in the directing of that government and its operations.
