EI program needs to get back to putting people first, MPs report

The government agency that delivers the employment insurance program may have lost sight of the notion that it should put Canadian citizens at the centre of how it delivers services, according to a new report.

The Employment Insurance Service Quality Review looked at how Service Canada was performing for EI claimants. The study was conducted by three Liberal MPs who travelled to all of the provinces and one of the territories to find out how to improve the EI system.

"When it was established, it was designed as a service-oriented organization, focused on providing the best possible service to Canadians as a citizen-centric service delivery organization," the report's executive summary said. "Since then, however, there is the impression that Service Canada may have lost sight of this central principle."

The report found that while 78 per cent of those surveyed were satisfied with the quality of service they received, only 30 per cent of people who needed to speak to a call centre agent could get through to one.

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Once they got through to an agent, 82 per cent of people were satisfied with the service they received, but the delay in speaking to an agent was a frustration that was widely felt.

The review also found that when someone needed to go into a Service Canada location for help, they were often frustrated by staff who have become "generalists for the organization, rather than specialists in the program."

The report's panel, consisting of Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid, Cape Breton-Canso MP Rodger Cuzner and Avignon-La Mitis-Matane-Matapédia MP Rémi Massé, recommended that Service Canada get back to doing what it was designed to do, putting Canadians first.

"The panel recommends Service Canada adopt a citizen-centric approach to its service delivery, one that includes effective citizen feedback strategies to understand the needs and priorities of citizens," the report read.

The panel also says that when those strategies are refocused, Service Canada should be required to measure and track results and report them annually to ensure it is meeting its new benchmarks.  

More resources needed

The panel says Service Canada needs to be able to increase the number of agents processing claims when demand for those claims spikes.

"As things stand right now, the funding for resources is fixed, meaning that the program cannot accommodate the increased volume of claims resulting in processing delays and slower service to Canadians," the report says.

The panel is also calling on Service Canada to implement an employee engagement plan that will make sure employees of the agency are "satisfied and committed" to providing "the best quality service possible to Canadians."

To fix the call centre issues, the review recommends giving the agency the money it needs in the short, medium and long term to function properly. The panel also calls for infrastructure renewal. 

"We have to upgrade our technology," Cuzner said. "We've got technology in places that, it's older than some of the people that are operating it, so it's time to make an investment."

Cuzner said many of the fixes required to improve the system would come with a large price tag the federal government would have to swallow.

"I don't think it's an accident that our report is being tabled before the budget. These kinds of things are before the finance minister, they are before the minister of [Employment and Social Development Canada] … and so we think we've made a strong case for investments," Duguid told reporters.