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Services and Benefits For You

Service Canada's Integrated Network

September 2005

Service Canada is bringing together a growing number of services and benefits from federal departments and agencies. We are also working to build partnerships with other levels of government and community service providers to better integrate services for the benefit of Canadians.

Canadians can expect the following range of services and benefits from Service Canada:

For all Canadians...

• Issuing of Social Insurance Number (SIN) cards; protection and security of SIN information;
• Passport receiving agent services in 23 communities across the country (Yellowknife, NWT; Whitehorse, YK; Iqaluit, NU; Kamloops, Comox Valley and Terrace, BC; Fort McMurray, AB; North Battleford and Yorkton, SK; Brandon, MB; Drummondville, Baie-Comeau and Val d'Or, QC; Miramichi and Campbellton, NB; Bridgewater and New Glasgow, NS; Corner Brook, Gander, NL; Timmins, Pembroke, Collingwood and Kenora, ON);
• A further 11 sites will deliver the passport receiving agent service by December 2005 (Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet, NU; Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Simpson and Fort Smith, NWT; Thompson and Flin Flon, MB; Montague, PEI; and Chibougamau and La Tuque, QC);
• Information and assisted service on a wide range of other government programs;
• Delivery of the National Homelessness Initiative.

For Youth, Working-Age Adults and families...

• Employment Insurance programs, including regular, parental, sickness, seasonal and compassionate care benefits;
• Canada Pension Plan Children's benefits;
• Employment programs to support working age adults, youth and Aboriginal persons prepare for, obtain and maintain employment;
• Job posting and job matching services for employers and job search, job matching and job alert services for jobseekers;
• Career navigator - skills and career tools, information on employment trends in Canada, local employment prospects by occupation and required qualifications;
• Delivery of Foreign Worker Program;
• Canadian Agricultural Skills Service in BC, Yukon, Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia;
• Canada Pension Plan accounts and provisions.

For Employers...

• Delivery of services to Employers, including Record of Employment on the Web; enquiries services and support; job posting and job matching services; information on the labour market, the Foreign Worker program and labour laws and regulations.

For Seniors...

• Canada Pension Plan benefits, including retirement, survivor, international and death benefits;
• Old Age Security, including the Guaranteed Income Supplement, Allowance and Allowance for Survivors benefits for low income seniors and foreign benefits;
• Delivery of grants and contributions program for seniors.

For Persons with Disabilities...

• Canada Pension Plan - Disability benefits;
• Delivery of grants and contributions program to support persons with disabilities.

Canadians will also benefit from a number of service improvements and pilot programs currently underway or planned in communities across the country:

• Three bilingual centres in the Manitoba communities of St-Boniface, St.Pierre-Jolys, and Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes addressing the needs of official-language minority communities. The experience gained through these centres will aid in the development of new points of service to support the needs of other official-language minority communities elsewhere in Canada (Port au Port, Newfoundland; Wellington, Prince Edward Island; Cochrane and Bell River, Ontario; Gravelbourg, Assiniboia and Bellevue, Saskatchewan; Peace River and Cold Lake, Alberta; and Iqualuit, Nunavut).
• Five "Social Insurance Number On-Demand" pilot programs underway in Quebec and Alberta where individuals can apply for and receive a Social Insurance Number in one visit;
• Nine pilot programs providing assistance to citizens in accessing Canada Revenue Agency services, beginning with four Service Canada locations in Drummondville, Trois-Rivières, Verdun and Ville LaSalle, Quebec;
• In Winnipeg, services offered through a recently expanded Aboriginal Single Window office will be extended to enable Service Canada representatives to reach out to key neighbourhoods.
• Expansion of passport receiving agent services into eleven more remote and rural communities by December 2005.

Service Canada has been working closely with a number of federal departments to integrate services. Today Service Canada brings services together from the following departments and agencies:

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada;
• Canadian Heritage;
• Canada Revenue Agency;
• Human Resources and Skills Development Canada;
• Passport Canada;
• Public Works and Government Services Canada;
• Social Development Canada; and
• Veterans Affairs Canada

Initial work is also underway with the following departments to identify opportunities over the next three years for integrated service delivery:

• Industry Canada;
• Citizenship and Immigration Canada;
• Health Canada; and
• Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

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Our Promise To You

SERVICE CANADA'S SERVICE COMMITMENT

September 2005

Service Canada is serious about meeting our service commitment to Canadians. We will do business differently, with a mindset of continuous improvement. In today's world, we need to evolve to thrive. We in government also have an obligation to Canadians to look at how we can do things differently, more efficiently.

Service Canada wants to strengthen Canadians' confidence and trust in our ability to meet their needs, and increase their satisfaction with our service. We are committed to continuously improving our service, and we're looking to Canadians to help us.

Our Service Commitment

• We have put in place a Service Charter, which explains what Canadians can expect from us and how they can provide feedback on the quality of our service;
• We have an Office of Client Satisfaction which will receive the views of Canadians on the quality of our service and recommend ways we can learn from our day-to-day interactions;
• In the next few months, we will establish our Service Standards, which clearly sets out the level of service we are committed to providing, consistent with the objectives we've laid out in the Service Charter;
• We will report our success in living up to our Service Standards in an annual Performance Scorecard, which will be presented to Canadians.

Service Charter

• The Service Charter describes:
  • The services we offer;
  • Our commitment and promise to Canadians;
  • How Canadians can help us serve them better through their feedback.
• The Service Charter will be a living commitment to Canadians, evolving and expanding as Service Canada continuously improves.

The Service Canada Office of Client Satisfaction

This Office will:

• Ensure that we learn from our day-to-day experiences with Canadians, and continue to meet our service commitments;
• Monitor and manage Service Canada suggestions, compliments and complaints;
• Help ensure that decisions are fair, open and transparent;
• Identify where we can improve our processes and procedures to make Service Canada as responsive and fair as possible;
• Do the necessary follow-up with Canadians to ensure we satisfy their concerns.

Canadians can also provide their feedback in person at our Service Canada centres, by phone through 1 800 O-Canada, on the Web at servicecanada.gc.ca, or by mail.

Service Standards

• Service Canada will maintain clear standards defining our service levels, consistent with the objectives laid out in the Service Charter. Our standards will govern:
  • Accuracy;
  • Service quality;
  • Timeliness of our response to applications, requests and complaints;
  • Ease of access;
  • Hours of service;
  • Geographic coverage;
  • Comprehensiveness of services.
• Service Canada's standards will be practical and measurable. We will report to Canadians on our success in achieving them.

Performance Scorecard

Our Performance Scorecard will:

• Measure performance against our Service Standards;
• Demonstrate how we are meeting our service commitments;
• Highlight where improvements need to be made;
• Show, over time, the service improvement that Service Canada has achieved;
• Appear in the Service Canada Annual Report.

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Visit!

Service Canada in Your Community

Service Canada Centres and Mobile Outreach Service

September 2005

Service Canada is here to help you in person, whether in an urban centre, rural or remote community. You can meet with one of our knowledgeable, efficient and courteous staff, who will direct you to the programs and services you need.

Service Canada in your community

Today, 320 Service Canada Centres across the country provide one-stop, in-person service. Service Canada's more than 20,000 staff are ready: all of our front-line, processing and management staff have been specially trained to provide a knowledgeable first point of contact for the Government of Canada and support one-stop service delivery. All 320 Service Canada Centres now provide free Internet access and our staff can provide guidance on how to use the Web.

And while we are harnessing the power of technology to improve our service delivery, we are also strengthening our presence and in-person service at the community level where Canadians live, work and raise families. In 2006, Service Canada's points of service will double, reaching 1.25 million more Canadians within 50 kilometres of where they live and giving access to many small, remote and rural communities that were previously under-serviced.

When you need us, Service Canada can come to you

One of the primary ways Service Canada will expand its presence is through mobile outreach - regularly scheduled or in response to a particular need - by knowledgeable Service Canada representatives travelling to meet the special needs of individuals, employers, and organizations. Scheduled visits to rural, remote and northern communities of one or two days per week will be arranged, to be held in local community centres, municipal offices and other community facilities.

Here are some examples of the type of outreach Service Canada will provide:

• Focused service for Aboriginal people, providing particular assistance for the unemployed, youth and seniors. The needs of Aboriginal people will also be addressed through proactive mobile services in a number of Canadian cities. For example, in Winnipeg, services offered through a recently expanded Aboriginal Single Window office will be extended to enable Service Canada representatives to reach out to key neighbourhoods.
• Targeted services for persons with disabilities. Meeting the needs of the disabled will be a priority for Service Canada. While each of Service Canada's Centres are accessible to persons with disabilities, as many as five outreach locations will offer specialized service in the Vancouver/Burnaby corridor where we know there is a particular need.
• Assisted service for seniors will be provided through mobile outreach to nursing homes, hospitals, seniors organizations and other locations across the country.
• Multilingual outreach services will be piloted in a number of communities including Vancouver and Toronto, to meet the needs of new Canadians. The goal is to offer not just information, but also direct, assisted service that better meets their needs and improves their access to services and benefits. Initial languages proposed for Vancouver and Toronto include Cantonese, Mandarin, and Punjabi, with the addition of Tagalog in Toronto.
• Specialized support for youth will be developed in several campuses of Canadian universities and colleges, building on the success of Café Jeunesse, a youth service centre in Montreal, Quebec. For example, in Ontario, consideration is being given to a college location that could serve as a possible home base for service delivery targeted to youth at risk.
• For communities in crisis, Service Canada will collaborate travel with its emergency response partners to assist in times of need. For example, Service Canada is currently leading the development of a partnership with other federal departments and provincial counterparts to provide seminars for employers affected by flooding in Southern Manitoba.

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Click!

servicecanada.gc.ca

Service Canada On-line

September 2005

At servicecanada.gc.ca, one-stop, integrated and secure access to the range of government programs and services is just a click away. Service Canada's Web Site - servicecanada.gc.ca - can connect Canadians to the services and information they need from the convenience of home, day or night.

Emphasizing the "I" in service

On the Service Canada Web Site, information and services are presented in a variety of different ways to suit the needs of individual Canadians, however they choose to express them.

Through the I am section, citizens can access:

• Extensive GoC information, benefits and services organized by client segment (e.g. working age adults, families, seniors, youth, persons with disabilities, Aboriginal people, new Canadians).

Through I am interested in, they can connect to:

• Key services outlined by subject (e.g. financial benefits, employment opportunities, skills training, tax information, public safety advice and services, personal identity requirements); and
• "Web services": on-line tools such as Benefit Finder, Retirement Calculator, Resume Builder, Career Navigator, and Tactile Maps for persons with disabilities.

Through the I Want: and May We Help You? sections, clients can access:

• Secure services (e.g. passport applications, on-line services for pension, or Employment Insurance benefits information);
• Electronic application and other forms (E-forms) to download and print (e.g. for Social Insurance Numbers), on-line ID card replacement; and
• Locally delivered services through Service Canada Centres.

At servicecanada.gc.ca our goal is simple - to help people get where they want to be, whether by matching them to a prospective employer, helping them access the right skills training, or by connecting them to support organizations and services such as non-governmental organizations.

Some examples of Service Canada's on-line services:

Employment Insurance Appli-Web: This service allows Canadians to apply for Employment Insurance on-line. The on-line process has been very well received: more than 90 percent of all initial EI applications are being submitted on-line. Of the 25 million reports submitted by Canadians annually, 98 percent are filed electronically. Responses to the on-line survey on this service include comments such as: "Excellent idea. Thanks for making it available;" and "This is a wonderful addition to your page - very user friendly."

Employment Insurance On-line: Canadians across the country can now view their personal Employment Insurance (EI) claim information on-line, as well as change their mailing address, phone number and direct deposit banking information. Since its introduction in May 2005, this new service has been very well received by Canadians, with almost 100,000 logins per week.

Canada Pension Plan Retirement Pension On-line Application: This service offers Canadians a simplified application form for the Canada Pension Plan Retirement pension that can be filled out and submitted on-line, with only the signature page to mail in.

Canada Pension Plan Statement of Contributions Online: The "Canada Pension Plan Statement of Contributions On-line" service allows over 12 million Canadians who contribute to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to view and print a detailed history of their earnings and contributions to the CPP, as well as obtain an estimate for CPP benefits they may be eligible to receive.

View and Update Personal Pension Information: The "View and Update Personal Pension Information" service enables approximately five million Canadians who currently receive Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits to change their address, phone number, and direct deposit information on-line. Clients can also view the amount of their monthly benefit.

Canadian Retirement Income Calculator: The on-line calculator allows Canadians to obtain a personalized estimate of the ongoing income they may receive throughout retirement. This includes income from Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan, employer pension(s), Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), and other sources of ongoing income.

Tax Slips On-line: This online service allows Canadians to view and print copies of their Old Age Security (OAS) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) tax information slips. They can also choose to stop receiving tax slips by mail.

Online services for Canadians with specific needs and interests: Service Canada offers integrated services for Canadians grouped according to their specific needs or circumstances. For example:

• Job Bank: provides job posting and job matching services for employers and job search, job matching and job alert services for job seekers.
• Career Navigator: provides skills and career tools, information on employment trends in Canada, local employment prospects by occupation and required qualifications.
• Youth.gc.ca: built by youth for youth, this on-line service provides quick and easy access to information on programs and services in the community and beyond. Topics include jobs and education, health and wellness, travel, environment, science and technology, sports and recreation, arts and culture, money, and the Government of Canada's Youth Employment Strategy.

More services will be coming on-line soon, such as My Service Canada Account, which will enable Canadians to access information on the services and benefits they are receiving from government. Canadians can use My Service Canada Account to update their account information, for example by changing their mailing address.

The Service Canada Web Site, servicecanada.gc.ca site includes all existing on-line Service Canada offerings for Canadians. For information on other government information or services - for example those pertaining to businesses or non-Canadians, the site links back to canada.gc.ca, the Government of Canada's main Web Site.

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Call!

1 800 O-CANADA

Service Canada's Call Network

September 2005

Service Canada offers one easy to remember toll-free number offering Canadians quick access to all Government of Canada programs and services. This number - 1 800 O-Canada (1 800 622-6232) - links callers directly to a courteous, knowledgeable and bilingual information officer.

Specially trained staff use an extensive database of information to answer questions, direct callers to services and take orders for government publications and documents. They are available to provide timely and accurate service from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., local time, Monday to Friday.

A direct line to the Government of Canada

1-800 O-Canada is the primary telephone access route for up-to-date information on programs designed for Canadians -- youth, working-age adults, seniors and Aboriginal people -- at home and abroad. Persons with disabilities can also use our service: Service Canada offers TTY, or teletypewriter service (a telecommunications device for the deaf and speech-impaired persons) at 1 800 926-9105. Callers can inquire about pension benefits, how to apply for the GST credit or a Social Insurance Number, get information about passport applications and taxes, locate their Member of Parliament, and much more.

The power of networking

Service Canada's 1 800 O-Canada line is now coordinated with a network of call centres formerly operated by Social Development Canada, which supports the delivery of the Employment Insurance Program (EI), Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security Program (OAS) and Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP).

The networked approach has led to significant improvements for Canadians in accessing expert assistance with a single phone call. Call centre agents are able to provide detailed information and direct Canadians to the right programs and services. By building on the strength of collaboration, the network has been able to maintain consistent service standards and achieve efficiencies. As a result of this integrated approach, staff have been able to respond to one million more phone calls from Canadians over the last year using the same resources.

• The Service Canada call centre network responds to about 50 million calls from Canadians a year. This number accounts for approximately 80 percent of all calls that come into the Government of Canada (excluding those directed to Canada Revenue Agency and Canada Post).
• Canadians traveling in many countries abroad can access the 1 800 O-Canada service free of charge.

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