Government Operations committee  In my experience, most times that happens because management has actually set the parameters in which people are allowed to think and give ideas. When I work with groups about ideas—and I engage at all levels of the community—I hear endless amounts of ideas that are presented and that people want to follow.

Government Operations committee  From reading that report, what I see was that they were given a parameter of “these are the services you provide, nothing more”. They weren't given the opportunity to discuss partnerships, to.... I talked about partnerships with the provinces. I said we have a problem right across this country providing services in diverse areas that are hard to reach.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I'm saying integrated thinking, and move to “and”.

Government Operations committee  “Or”

Government Operations committee  I would start to develop partnerships. I would start to work with the provinces and municipalities to develop the list of potential services they can share. As I said, I would actually develop that platform to say this is what we will do in different centres. There would be that shopping cart.

Government Operations committee  That's something I really haven't given much thought to. I would have to have some time to think about that.

Government Operations committee  I agree with you completely. I think it is part of our national heritage, if you will. If you look at strong countries in the world, they have national postal systems. If you look at the countries that are in trouble, that's one of the first things that goes away. I believe that it's core to providing service.

Government Operations committee  I think that's definitely a possibility. I talked about a platform, so you set up a platform of services. I also talked about business service centres. If, in these rural communities that you speak about, they had a service centre where people could go to learn.... Say you don't have access to a doctor and you could go and have a quiet room where you could do telemedicine, you start to solve a lot of other problems in rural communities and offer them access to services they don't have.

Government Operations committee  I think you could definitely talk about part of the paradigm change, but you're also asking them to change the services they deliver and the way they deliver them, so maybe there are opportunities with that.

Government Operations committee  It's very practical. It seldom occurs without a major change in leadership and one or two levels down. I specialize in change management. Occasionally, you can find people who will do it, but more often than not you won't. For example, Procter & Gamble got rid of the top level and one or two levels down, and it brought in somebody who was going to make that change.

Government Operations committee  Yes, I would do that. I want to also state that the current management team was given a certain mandate.

Government Operations committee  They were given parameters. The first thing to ask is whether they're willing to move out of that box. If you can't see them moving, then make the change fast. If Parliament or whatever government has been setting those parameters, then give them that chance to at least move into that new realm.

Government Operations committee  It's a good question. I understand the need for that, but I guess what I'd caution about is that maybe you need a sliding scale. Maybe it's a case where if it's in the far north, where that becomes prohibitive, then you have to be aware of that because you're decreasing your service level and you're increasing your rural divide.

Government Operations committee  I think, as I said, we have to have the “and” conversation and look at the possibilities, but we have to understand the impacts of them.

Government Operations committee  Once again you're increasing that rural-urban divide and I think it will cause us great problems in the long term. That's a very narrow focus, and when I talk about thinking integratively, that's what I'm talking about. You actually look at all the chessboard, not only the three squares in front of you.