Mr. Speaker, this debate on full supply of the estimates is an appropriate time to examine how well this government is increasing the cost effectiveness of its spending. I take this opportunity to explain some of the initiatives we are taking to make government services more affordable while at the same time maintaining or improving the quality of those services.
The government undertook the program review to identify those programs and services which in this environment of fiscal restraint are no longer needed or that the federal government no longer needs to deliver directly. The results of this review were outlined in the budget. The government has indicated the areas in which it is reducing its role or where other levels of government, the private sector or partnership arrangements can provide services more efficiently.
With respect to the programs that are truly needed and which the federal government will continue to provide, Canadians want this government to maintain the quality of its services and to deliver them in the most cost effective and responsive way possible. Affordable and quality service delivery will be watchwords of this government. For programs and services that remain its responsibility, the federal government is committed to ensuring that its clients receive quality affordable services that are accessible, responsive and balance the interests of taxpayers and those receiving the service.
With ongoing expenditure restraint, a key challenge will be to find new cost effective ways to design and deliver quality programs and services and wherever possible, to continue to make significant service and efficiency improvements in the delivery systems.
Across the government, departments and agencies are responding to this priority with innovative approaches to delivering programs such as the use of information technology, partnering with clients and other organizations and streamlining their operations. I describe for the House a number of initiatives that are now under way and which aim to achieve a public service that consistently provides affordable and quality services.
The government has developed a number of general strategies for achieving this goal: adopting more efficient ways to deliver programs; focusing on service standards and quality; providing client oriented delivery; cutting regulatory red tape; promoting fairness through cost recovery; enhancing efficient resource management; and using technology.
Following a commitment in the 1994 budget, the President of the Treasury Board released a draft declaration of quality services to federal employees in December 1994. This document identifies the following principles that all federal employees are expected to adopt in delivering quality services.
Services are to be accessible, dependable and timely. Timely access to the right service can be improved for example by making services increasingly available at times and in ways that are more convenient to the public. Services are to be delivered clearly and in an open manner. Communicate in plain language with clients about how services are managed and delivered. As regulations and decisions become more complex, make them more easily understood.
Services are to be delivered fairly and respectfully. Canadians expect to be treated in a fair and courteous manner when they use our government services. Services are to be good value for tax dollars, basing decisions on affordability, sound principles and good judgment to demonstrate the value of service to the Canadian public. Services are to be responsive and those delivering them committed to an improvement.
Ongoing consultation, asking clients what they think about the programs and services and how they can be improved is the cornerstone of quality service. After consulting employees and the public, the government will release the declaration to Canadians later this year.
Canada business service centres, CBSCs, provide one access point for information, assistance and referrals on all government programs and services to business. With the recent opening of a CBSC in Toronto there is now a network of 10 centres, one in a major urban centre of every province. In most cases these are funded jointly and operated with a province, or a province and the private sector. Clients have access to services by telephone, fax and in person.
As part of its action plan "Agenda: Jobs and Growth: Building a More Innovative Economy", the federal government has increased its support for this initiative to $15 million annually for four years. It is expanding services to meet the information needs of business clients by improving access through co-operative arrangements with community based organizations such as the economic development commissions and chambers of commerce, increasing the availability of direct computer access to the information from home or office, and continuing to improve information particularly on regulatory matters of interest to business.
Several departments continue to make services available to the public through common government access points at over 300 infocentres across Canada.
Businesses will be able to use a single business registration number which is being phased in during 1995 to gain access to several Revenue Canada business programs including those relating to payroll deductions, corporate income tax, the GST, customs duties and excise taxes. This single business registration number which will allow the department and businesses to have access to a variety of programs and services replaces at least six separate identifiers currently in use.
As indicated in "Building a More Innovative Economy" the government will have reduced significantly within three years the amount of time that small and medium size enterprises spend on federal government operations and federal government information requests in order to help stimulate job creation and a healthy, vigorous economic climate for small business.
A joint public-private sector forum of major information collecting departments and representatives from small and medium size businesses and business associations will be the focal point for ongoing consultations on government initiatives to challenge the need for the information the government currently requires from small and medium size businesses, develop means to eliminate duplication between departments and governments in data collection, and to find ways to collect the remaining information electronically to the fullest extent possible.
It should be clear to all Canadians that the program review has resulted in significant decisions on a broad range of federal government programs and services. These decisions will enable the government to serve Canadians better with renewed purpose.
The initiatives and successes I have outlined today show that the government and public service employees are dedicated to achieving affordable quality services using the most efficient means available.
The people in my riding of Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington have endorsed the 1995 federal budget. Major Canadian and international corporations have expressed their confidence in our government, our country and in the greatest asset in my riding of Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, the confidence in our people. The workforce in my riding deserves the recognition it has received. I wish to take a moment to describe the confidence placed in my constituents.
Celanese Canada has won a $191 million expansion to its polymers facility in Ernestown township. This happened in the last three weeks. Competition for this contract came from the Carolinas and from Mexico. The manager announced that this international company was very impressed with the talents and dedication of our workforce. Three hundred or four hundred construction jobs will be created.
DESTEC Energy has started construction on its new 100 megawatt co-generation plant. This $180 million project will employ 150 to 200 people during construction.
Across the road from those two projects, Bombardier, formerly UTDC, has received a $595 million order for a light transit system for Malaysia. Our Prime Minister gave us his assistance in bringing home this contract from his Asian tour. Four hundred people will be employed from now until 1998 with this single order alone.
Nearby in my hometown of Napanee, Goodyear Canada is undergoing an expansion in the world's most modern tire manufacturing plant. Twenty-seven to thirty million dollars of Goodyear's money is being invested in our community.
These large projects will result in hundreds of direct and spinoff jobs in our communities. Between the companies involved, almost $1 billion has been committed to Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington recently. Confidence is the word to remember for Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington and for all of Canada.
Allow me one more expression of confidence. One-third of all the people in North America live within 550 miles of my riding. It is a great place to make and serve your product. All inquiries are welcome.
