Question Period Note: 1 800 O-CANADA SERVICE

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.

Based on the funding available in Budget 2023 to meet the anticipated demand over the years to come, the department is looking at the various funding options available.

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 are met, measuring accuracy and completeness of information are measured).

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 five years for Canada.ca and 1 800 O-Canada

The 1 800 O-Canada service provides a quick and bilingual access to up-to-date information on all Government of Canada programs, services, initiatives, and key priorities. It also supports the Government’s communication needs in crisis situations.

When compared to the pre pandemic level of demand, call volume has increased by 35% (1.6 million calls in 2018-2019 compared to 2.1 million calls in 2021-2022 and 2.2M calls in 2022-2023).

The growth in volume has begun to stabilize while remaining above 2 million calls annually when the program is only funded for a service delivery officer capacity of up to 1.6 million calls annually.

The 1 800 O-Canada’s published service accessibility target is to answer at least 80% of the call volume within 18 seconds. The yearly service standard has not been consistently met during COVID 19’s peak: 70% in 2018-2020, 62% in 2020-2021, 76% in 2021-2022.

In 2022-2023, the Department internally reallocated enough funds on a temporary basis to augment the service delivery officer capacity, and 1 800 O-Canada will meet the yearly service standard of 80%.

The qualitative standards evaluate information accuracy and completeness provided to callers. Year-to-date, the average result is 85.8%, also continuing to meet the 85% target.

Budget partial funding for 1 800 O-Canada to meet the wait time standards expected by Canadians: $7.2M over three years, including : $2.6M in 2023-2024 and $2.3M in both 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.