Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22 - Issue 8

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Our mission is to contribute to excellence in public service management
Editorial
Editor-in-Chief: Patrice Dutil
Associate Editor:Marcello Sukhdeo
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Vic Pakalnis, Mirarco, Laurentian University; Denise Amyot,
CEO, ACCC; Guy Gordon, Manitoba; Peter Jones, OCADU;
Murray Kronick, BDO-Interis Consulting; Michael Eastman,
Government Internal Auditors Council of Canada
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4 / Canadian Government Executive // October 2016
Service Improvement to
Businesses as Mission #1
In the recent June issue, we published a captivating piece by Christopher Lau on what
governments need to do to attract more foreign companies to settle in this country. His
conclusion, drawn on what is happening in the United States and Canada, was that
governments need to “sell” the quality of the workforce, the education of the popula-
tion, the peacefulness of society and other soft attributes. These were far more likely to
attract capital than mere tax breaks.
For nearly fifteen years, an entirely different sector of public servants has also been
obsessed with discovering how governments could best serve business. Inspired by the
work of the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service on Citizens First, it figuratively passed
around a hat and collected sufficient funds from twenty government organizations to
fund a similar study on the needs of business owners and managers. That remarkable
desire to learn has triggered a great learning wave.
The first Taking Care of Business survey in 2003, based on close to 6000 responses, estab-
lished baseline information on business expectations and levels of satisfactionwith govern-
ment service delivery. The idea was to discover what businesspeople thought about the
information and services that were offered to start a business, and to gauge the reaction to
the forms and processes that were considered necessary by governments. It also hoped to
better understand the burden of regulation being imposed on the private sector.
The survey confirmed that business people are far more consistently in contact with
the state than individual citizens. The study concluded that service improvement strat-
egies should focus largely around five themes: communication of information; mini-
mizing burden; providing timely service; ensuring fair treatment; and achieving the
desired outcome (when possible).
The study had an immediate impact on government services as they sought to im-
prove their performance. A few years later, Taking Care of Business 2 (2007) confirmed
the first results and even recorded a little improvement in service satisfaction. Taking
Care of Business 3 (2010), however, showed a slight decline in satisfaction. There was a
new finding: although the telephone was still the primary means by which businesses
communicated with government, 51 percent of operators expressed a need for faster,
more convenient service: they wanted more Internet.
The study, moreover, discovered that the majority of business respondents felt that
they received a poor return on their tax dollar. Almost one-half (44%) of respondents
felt that red tape had increased over the past three years, while a similar proportion
(47%) felt that the regulatory burden had remained the same. Only 4% of businesses
reported a decrease in overall regulatory burden.
Taking Care of Business 3 also discerned that Canadian businesses wanted more involve-
ment in the decision-making processes of government. Less than one-quarter of busi
contacted agreed that they were sufficiently consulted about regulatory/bylaw changes;
that they had received sufficient information about such changes; or were provided with
adequate time to respond to proposed changes. Governments had a job to do!
Taking Care of Business 4, released in 2013, was funded by eleven agencies and reported
on 4300 business responses. It reported that satisfaction among respondents was still
declining, recording a slight decline in overall satisfaction. 64.1 percent of respondents
were satisfied in 2010; 63.4 percent said so in 2013.
But what was remarkable was that for the first time, preference for the online channel
exceeded that for the telephone. Over 75% of respondents indicated an interest in accessing
all routine government services online. On the issue of red tape, the majority of businesses
reported that the red tape burden has either increased (48%) or stayed the same (49%).
The latest Taking Care of Business, #5, is now out and its key features are highlighted
by Mr. Michal Dziong in this month’s issue. It shows some good news, but more impor-
tantly demonstrates that work must continue on this file. The work of government-to-
business relations (G2B) is vital for the prosperity of this country. It starts with attract-
ing business, but it also means keeping it here, and that can only be done by providing
all-around great service. Needless to say that if Canada is to grow its own businesses—
and see them flourish on the world stage as exporters—all levels of government are
going to have to do a better job of Taking Care of Business.
editor’s note Patrice Dutil
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