Canada loses top world ranking for public service delivery

Performance of Harper Conservatives not rated as highly as previous Canadian governments

Ottawa (20 June 2007) - Canada has lost its top world ranking for delivering public services to citizens since the Harper Conservatives took power in 2006, says a new international report.

Canada ranked first among 22 countries surveyed when the last ranking was issued for the year 2005. It also ranked first in each of the previous four years.

For 2006, Canada has been replaced at the top by Singapore. The United States ranks third, Denmark fourth and Sweden fifth. In terms of the citizens' perceptions of the services they receive from their government, Canada has dropped much lower - to ninth place overall.

The 22 countries surveyed include Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The report focused on four key areas of service: knowing the needs of citizens, making connections, providing competent, well-equipped frontline workers to deal with citizens and developing relationships with citizens, businesses and non-governmental organizations to provide effective services.

The report is issued annually by the international consulting firm Accenture.

Direct feedback

This year, for the first time, the report incorporated direct feedback from citizens as a means of providing a more accurate assessment of the quality of services provided by governments. Citizens were asked to assess factors such as user-friendliness, online services and overall satisfaction.

"Canada is part of a group of countries where citizens have a sense that services have lagged in the past few years," the report says. "We have praised all of these countries in the past ... yet somehow they have let service flag in the eyes of citizens."

Nearly 80% of Singapore residents surveyed felt services had improved over the past three years compared to just 2% who felt they had deteriorated. In Canada, only 41% felt services had improved while 18% felt they had deteriorated. NUPGE