The Government of Canada spends an estimated $3 billion in external service delivery annually. Formally created in 2005, Service Canada is the Government of Canada's one-stop service delivery network for Canadians. In partnership with other departments, agencies and levels of government, Service Canada aims to provide Canadians with easy access to a growing range of government programs and services.
Serving some 32 million Canadians and 1.3 million employers, Service Canada today comprises 22,000 staff responsible for delivering more than $190 million in benefits per day while conducting more than 350 million transactions with Canadians each year.
Service Canada's delivery network consists of over 500 in-person points of service reaching over 96 per cent of Canadians within 50km, a national telephone service at 1 800 O-Canada and on-line services at servicecanada.gc.ca.
The promise of Service Canada is significant and represents one of the most far-reaching transformations in service delivery for the federal government. Service Canada is pursuing opportunities to provide integrated, one-stop service based on citizens' needs, help realize better policy outcomes, and improve accountability and transparency in service while realizing significant savings.
Realizing such benefits requires nothing less than a transformation of governance, both within Service Canada and externally via its partners in government and elsewhere. Service transformation is not about consolidation and centralization, but rather new and more collaborative governance mechanisms based on the unifying objective of better serving the citizen.
For many years, governments world-wide have delivered service to their citizens through a traditional programmatic business model. This model is characterized by multiple policy departments with siloed programs and program-specific service delivery channels (in-person offices, phone centres, Internet and the mail). For some time, it has been evident that this model is complex and frustrating for citizens to navigate, too expensive and focused on transactions rather than outcomes.
There are better ways. Accordingly, the citizen-centred business model developed by Service Canada focuses on people rather than programs, and puts the citizen at the centre of how government delivers service. There are four defining concepts: focusing on the citizen; delivering one-stop government service; integrating citizen information; and collaboration and partnership.
In accordance with this fourth defining concept, a number of partnership strategies are being developed, including ways to better leverage relationships with the private sector. Establishing strong partnerships with private industry can provide Service Canada with an opportunity to access outside expertise and new resources. Working as a protoB-type of collaborative, networked government, Service Canada recognizes that the new citizen-centred business model is one where both necessity and shared opportunity are driving the partnership imperative.
What does P3 really mean?
Despite numerous definitions, a public-private partnership is fundamentally about devising a joint effort where ownership and outcomes are embedded in shared and adaptable processes. In pursuing results that would not otherwise be attainable by acting alone, governments can benefit from this collaborative logic - provided the relationship is taken seriously.
Forging partnerships requires a dramatically different mindset than traditional public-sector procurement. Whereas procurement is about knowing what is required and then securing it through market transactions codified in highly specific contracts, a partnering strategy is predicated on finding innovative solutions that cannot be specified in advance. While efficiency remains important, partnerships are less about upfront cost savings than performance innovation and the creation of service value.
With respect to public-sector service transformation, then, the emergence of a partnership imperative goes beyond traditional outsourcing in favour of a more integrative approach built on interdependence. Outsourcing entails a direct transferring of specific functions from one organization to another: it implies ceasing control to an external party. Partnering enjoins parties in a common mission where accountability for the attainment of agreed-to outcomes is shared.
A key lesson emerging from jurisdictions around the world is that there is no panacea for successfully undertaking a public-private partnership in the realm of service transformation. Yet the most over-riding condition for success (and a cause of failure when absent) is a serious and holistic focus on viewing and managing the relationship as a partnership.
While seemingly simple to state, such a focus carries profound consequences for forming and executing a collaborative endeavour. Most important is recognition that specific solutions can only arise from joint exploration and definition; that risks and rewards must be shared through governance mechanisms that enjoin the partners; and that adapting to uncertainty and change requires flexibility and trust as the partnership unfolds.
For the Government of Canada, partnerships must be inserted at the core of service transformation. The critical and collaborative challenge for Service Canada is to leverage partnerships in order to optimally align internal and external resources and competencies within a seamless, leading-edge and performance-driven, service-oriented architecture.
Continued: Municipalities lead by example
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