Question Period Note: SERVICE 1 800 O-CANADA

What can Canadians expect from 1 800 O-Canada post COVID-19?

1 800 O-Canada ensures that Canadians receive the information that they require and that they can access the benefits to which they are entitled. The service also provides an alternate option to clients who are unable to access Canada.ca or who require assistance.

During COVID-19, it provided Canadians with answers to specific questions about the Government’s pandemic response. Call volumes and call duration increased and continue with little indication of reducing. This in turn drives the extra service delivery officer capacity and infrastructure requirements for the program and a structural deficit.

Through Budget 2023, this Government provided some funding for 1 800 O-Canada to meet the wait time standards expected by Canadians.

The history of 1 800 O-Canada is rooted in service delivery excellence. It has a long tradition of developing and enhancing best practices, standards and operational efficiencies.

The services are supported by a comprehensive knowledge repository that service delivery officers can easily consult when answering calls from the public. Standards of service delivery excellence ensure accessibility (for 1 800 O-Canada hours of operation are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. callers’ local time; abandonment rates of less than 5%; the easily recognizable number allows for effective branding and a high recall factor) and high quality (thorough needs assessment, effective call handling procedures, meeting courtesy and professionalism criteria, measuring accuracy and completeness of information).

The program is quickly scalable up and down based on volume trends and funds availability:

The existing call centre information technology (IT) infrastructure managed by the Department in collaboration with Shared Services Canada is fully scalable.

The Department has a contract in place with a private sector service provider (Gatestone & Co Inc. since May 2020) that can increase the number of call centre officers and the workstations capacity on demand.

Adaptability and responsiveness to changing needs and demands is also achieved by analyzing service usage statistics and client feedback to better understand the general public’s information needs, as well as making continuous information holding enhancements to meet caller expectations.

During the pandemic, Canadians increasingly turned to government programs and services such as 1 800 O-Canada to access support and authoritative information.

The program can only meet its wait time standard of 80% of the calls answered in 18 seconds and its quality standard with the right level of funding to adjust its call centre officer capacity to forecasted demand. The program A base funding level for call centre officer capacity ($6.2M yearly) and other infrastructure costs ($0.7M) has not evolved since 2005 and only covers for up to 1.6M calls to the service per year when direct costs are indexed yearly and call volumes to 1 800 O Canada have skyrocketed. The Program needs ongoing service delivery officer capacity beyond the existing A base funding levels (+150 officers approximately) to meet the anticipated volume demand of 2M calls in FY23-24. Increased infrastructure costs commitments must also be covered.

The Budget 2023 provided partial funding for Canada.ca and 1 800 O-Canada services. Specifically, it provided a combined funding of $17.7M over four years for Canada.ca and 1 800 O-Canada.

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