Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about one of my pet peeves with GNWT programs and services: the lack of customer service that we provide to our users.
GNWT employees are all members of a public service. That should mean that they ensure that the public, NWT residents, receive service; the same kind of service that we expect from the retail and the food sector. But at times when designing programs, we – and I mean both the government and workers – forget that. We forget to consider customer service in our planning for the provision of services and in the delivery of those services.
An example of this came to my attention recently. The Yellowknife motor vehicles office is a busy place. Staff are pleasant and hard working. It’s an office that provides many things to the public, many different kinds of vehicle registrations, driver licensing for all type of vehicles, provides information, certifies records and so on. In person, service seems to be pretty good; but once you have to use the phone to deal with the motor vehicles staff, things are not so good. There are three potential staff available for inquiries; at least there are three people and phone numbers listed for that. It should be possible to call and get one of the three to actually answer the phone and speak to the callers, but that seems not to be the case.
A Frame Lake constituent who recently called all three numbers in a very short period of time had all calls go right to voice mail. No possibility to actually speak to a live human being, and the voice mail messages all promised a response to the message within 48 hours. Forty-eight hours. I think that’s unacceptable. A minimum standard of customer service demands a callback the same day that the voice message was left. Is this a case of not enough staff? Is it just a case of poor callback policy? What standard of customer service does the Minister expect from Transportation employees who provide services to the public?
The GNWT employs some 5,000 people. Surely we can analyze our staffing complement and program needs and find another area or another office who can give up a person to motor vehicles so we can actually have the phones answered. Residents do often have an urgent need for information and cannot attend the office in person. They can’t, nor should they have to, wait two days to get the info required.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
The Finance Minister said yesterday that the GNWT is striving for efficient and effective government. If that’s a sincere statement, we should seriously examine employee productivity and adjust our staff accordingly. At the very least, Mr. Speaker, we must add a staffer by transfer, at the motor vehicles office to improve the level of service that we should provide. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
