Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

What do you think of this new “deliverology” talk

in Ottawa?

I’ve been around long enough to have had experience in the de-

velopment of mission statements, ISO 9000, Total Quality Manage-

ment, Balanced Scorecard, Six Sigma, and now “deliverology”. All

of these structured approaches to improved effectiveness and ef-

ficiency have benefits mostly because they “force” a focus on return

on investment whether the investment is money or people and

whether the return is monetary or more qualitative and outcome-

based. I’m a champion of structured and planned approaches and

I like to see measurements of impact and results. Anything that

helps in that direction I will support.

Where do you see things developing in terms of

P3s in service delivery?

I think the best opportunity for P3 investment is in mobile and

other technology. Some of the small technology companies can

create apps and new electronic offerings quite quickly. I think this

is our best hope for quick to market on-line service delivery.

The latest

Citizens First

report published by ICCS

made an eloquent case that Canadians are ready to

consume a lot more services on-line. What are the

challenges?

The public sector faces so many fiscal challenges. It has to balance

one investment against another: an investment in electronic ser-

vice delivery or an MRI machine? I worked with a smart person

who used to say “the first transaction costs $5M, the second one

costs $.50,” and that’s really true. There is a large up-front invest-

ment and the return on that investment can take time. Another

challenging aspect is that there isn’t always appetite for the policy

decisions that “push” or “pull” clients to the on-line channel. Gov-

ernment has positioned on-line service as an “option” and govern-

ment can usually expect around 10-20% take up. However, when

“pull” incentives are introduced (discounts, expedited service) or

“push” incentives (fewer store front locations, services only avail-

able electronically) some public sector organizations have seen

take up in the 60%-70% range.

Has the integration of services hit a plateau?

I think in many areas we’ve exhausted the “low hanging fruit,” but

I don’t at all think we’ve reached a plateau. Our clients in com-

mon still have to go multiple places to tell their story and obtain

services. In Nova Scotia, the focus on “life events” - whether indi-

vidual or business life - has incredible potential across all levels of

government. Organizing programs and services in ways that make

sense to clients such as “I got married”, “I had a baby”, “I had a

death in my family” can really make it easier for clients to interact

with government. I don’t think we’ve really scratched the surface

on the social services side. Since joining the Nova Scotia Depart-

/ Canadian Government Executive

// March 2016

The Interview

Nancy

MacLellan

The pressure is always on to make government services to the public and to the business community

faster, more efficient, better and as inexpensive as possible. Patrice Dutil, the editor of CGE, connect-

ed with

Nancy MacLellan

, the President of the Institute for Citizen Centred Service (ICCS) to discuss

what is on the innovation horizon. The ICCS is a non-profit organization funded by the federal gov-

ernment and provinces and territories. By day, Nancy MacLellan is the Associate Deputy Minister of

Community Services in the Government of Nova Scotia since 2013. Before that, Ms. MacLellan served

as executive director of service delivery at Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations. She joined the

Nova Scotia public service in 1997, earned an MBA from St. Mary’s University in 2002, and has worked

at the Nova Scotia Treasury and Policy Board, the Nova Scotia Department of Justice, and Service

Nova Scotia before joining the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services.

on Government

Service Delivery