First of all, we've hired over 300 new individuals based on budget 2015 and 2016. All these individuals are going through an intensive training program, which is all about care, compassion, and respect. They are going out into the offices across the country with the new philosophies. Come April 1, we're going to bring in our more experienced people and put them through, not quite the same training because they have the expertise, but to make sure they know the new concepts.
For the service delivery branch, for my branch, my directors general and my executives are all tasked to get out to a field office on a very regular basis. Our head office is in Charlottetown, as opposed to other departments, but if you're always in the ivory tower and you never make it to the front line, or to the train yard, you don't really know what's happening on that front line.
It caught me by surprise when a person in a certain position said he went with a deputy to an office, and it was the first time in x number of years he'd been to a field office. I was thinking to myself, how do you know what's going on?
I feel it every day.... I field the complaints—not just feel, but field—but it's important that everybody does. Our deputy—you've met him, he was here Tuesday—and the associate deputy minister go to offices, and the deputy probably hits an office every couple of weeks, a bit less now because of his operation. When he comes back, he goes to the senior management table and tells them what he heard and saw.
It's being brought into the entire organization, because care, compassion, and respect has to be believed and lived at all levels of the organization. The staff are living it. I live it every day. The doctor here lives it every day, but we have to ensure the entire department understands it.