Nova Scotia Community Services Minister Peter Christie. The 
Firms bid on welfare, housing revamp
By BRIAN FLINN
The Daily News,
Only two companies want a contract to overhaul the Community Services Department, and the NDP says one of them botched a similar project in
IBM Canada and Accenture were the only firms to submit proposals by the Tuesday deadline. Community Services Minister Peter Christie said the government will now evaluate those bids to see if either meets the criteria.
He said the province doesn’t have to accept either bid if it doesn’t like them.
The
The
The company that overhauled welfare in
Andersen Consulting spun off from Arthur Andersen in the 1990s and severed its last ties with the accounting giant after that company was accused of cooking the books in the Enron scandal in the
Christie said he’s aware of criticism of Accenture’s track record in
“We’ll evaluate all of those things,” he said.
NDP: poor will be hurt
NDP community services critic Jerry Pye said no private company can find savings in the department without hurting the poor.
“There’s no way,” he said. “It either comes through reduction of services or reduction of staff.”
Staff cuts would impact poor, abused and neglected Nova Scotians who rely on the department, he said.
Pye said the government might believe it’s saving money by having a consultant provide a new computer system to administer welfare. But the system would cost more money in the long run if it creates a perpetual reliance on the private partner.
Other savings could be found from making applications so difficult that people drop off the welfare roll. Pye said a highly automated system wouldn’t really serve the province’s poor because few have computers and Community Services refuses to pay for telephones for people collecting welfare.
bflinn@hfxnews.southam.ca
NSGEU (Nova Scotia Government Employee's Union) President's letter to the Hon. Peter Christie, Minister of Community Services
http://www.nsgeu.ns.ca/index.html
May 29, 2002
Hon. Peter Christie
Minister of Community Services
P.O. Box 696
Halifax, N.S., B3J 2T7
Dear Mr. Christie:
Re: Client Services Delivery Initiative
On May 17, 2002, Deputy Minister Cramm informed staff that your Department had decided not to accept either of the two proposals received for the Client Services Delivery Initiative (CSDI). He also indicated that the Department was as committed as ever to CSDI and to improving and modernizing your service delivery approach. To help design and implement the new service delivery approaches planned under CSDI, he further explained that you were now looking at a range of new and previously considered alternatives.
In light of my April 30, 2002 letter to you, I am writing to clarify how exactly neither of the two proposals received met the requirements that you set out in the RFP and what your alternative plans now will be to carry out this initiative. If your Department is as committed as ever to CSDI, will there still be some role for a private, for-profit partner(s)? And if so, what will that role be and how will you select that partner(s)?
We think this recent development would be an excellent opportunity to follow
our principal recommendation to you that we have made on several occasions,
namely, to suspend this initiative until there has been a full opportunity for
meaningful information-sharing and consultation with our members and this
Union as well as with clients of the Department and their organizations.
We urge you again to reconsider how a business or corporate model for
making a profit fits with human services that are operated by a government
department. We hope you would now see that the experience and expertise
for improving the Department lie first and foremost with your own staff and
with the people who use your services.
…. /2
Hon. Peter Christie
Minister of Community Services
Page Two
I also want to remind you again of your government’s commitment to the Five Point Plan for Quality Public Service Protection. This Plan should be observed in any new plan to proceed with CSDI.
As stated in my earlier letter, I would like to meet with you in the near future to elaborate on our questions and concerns about this initiative and about what alternatives or options may be now be considered for it.
Yours sincerely,
Joan Jessome
NSGEU President
c. Premier John Hamm
E.G. Cramm, Deputy Minister, Department of Community Services
Jerry Pye, NDP Community Services Critic
David Wilson, Liberal Community Services Critic
Dr. David Williams, Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers and The Social Justice Network
Jeanne Fay, Community Advocates Network and Dalhousie Legal Aid
Joan Jessome, President, NSGEU
Speaking Notes for Joan Jessome, President,
Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union
At the Joint Media Conference of Concerned Organizations about the Client Services Delivery Initiative (CSDI) Of the Department of Community Services
Monday, April 29, 2002 , Uniacke Room, 11:00 a.m.
During the past year, we have listened to our members who work in the Department. We have participated in the so-called “vendor consultation process” of the Department about this initiative. We have read the documents provided by the Department about it. And we have talked with other organizations.
From all these efforts, our position has remained the same. We continue to believe that the whole initiative should be suspended and put on hold until there has been a full opportunity for meaningful information-sharing and consultation with our members and this Union as well as with clients of the Department and their organizations.
We have a long list of questions and concerns that the Department has yet to answer. For example, why is the Department seeking a private, for-profit partner to help it transform or modernize the operations and services of the
Department? How does a business or corporate model fit with human services operated by a government department? Why does the Department not feel the experience and the expertise for improving the Department notlie first and foremost with their own staff and with the people who use
their services. How will quality of service and effectiveness be improved with less direct contact with clients or potential clients, possibly using a call
centre?
We have outlined our questions and concerns to the Minister and Deputy Minister of the Department and they have refused to meet with us in any meaningful way to address our questions and concerns. In reply to our first
letter to the Department, the Deputy Minister committed in writing on June 12, 2001 to us: “….that before any formal request for proposal is made we
will have addressed these issues and will keep you apprised accordingly.” THIS HAS NOT HAPPENED AND THERE IS NO APPARENT
WILLINGNESS FROM THE DEPARTMENT TO DO SO.
I also want to remind the Department and the government of their supposed commitment to the Five Point Plan for Quality Public Service Protection which includes open public consultation, clear demonstrable evidence of the benefits of any proposed privatization, public tabling of any documents
about any initiative and protection of the rights and benefits of employees.
THE DEPARTMENT HAS YET TO ACKNOWLEDGE EVEN THE EXISTENCE OF THIS PLAN, LET ALONE THEIR COMMITMENT TO HONOURING IT.
There is no evidence here or elsewhere that a public-private partnership with vital community and income support services will anything but bad news for clients, workers and taxpayers. I again call upon the Department of Community Services to suspend this CSDI project and instead work with
clients and us as equal partners in truly making positive progressive changes.
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