Another Liberal money-saving idea: chop government call centres

The Gallant government has released its latest proposal for how it might save money: chopping more than 40 government call centres, and their 400 employees, down to size.

It's the latest in a slow trickle of ideas the Liberals are looking at as part of their Strategic Program Review, an exercise designed to find as much as $600 million in reduced spending and new revenue.

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The Liberals plan to release a wide-ranging report full of options on Friday, but in the meantime, they've been lobbing some of the individual proposals into the laps of New Brunswickers.

"There are efficiencies that can be found by consolidating these centres," said Victor Boudreau, the minister responsible for the review.

"You could have four, five, or six of these call centres in different locations and be able to provide better quality service, having more technology, doing both inbound and outbound with better hours of service.

"It's about managing what we've got better than operating over forty different customer contact centres separately."

For example, people calling for youth services in the Department of Social Development speak to a call centre in Moncton.

Those calling to get a copy of the province's tourism guide talk to a centre in Campbellton.

Some of the centres operate Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while others are open around the clock, Boudreau said.

"By combining them, I would think for the average New Brunswicker, you'd be improving the level and quality of service."

The consolidation is separate from the merger of Service New Brunswick and various back-office internal government services.

Privatizing also an option

He said privatizing some of the call centres is "something that could be looked at," but many of them are "fairly specialized."

For example, some of the Social Development employees who answer the phones are social workers.

The call-centre consolidation is the third potential program review initiative made public in the last week.

Last week, the government said it was "considering" creating a special enforcement unit to investigate tobacco smuggling in the hopes of collecting about $5 million more per year in taxes.

On Wednesday, the province suggested it might allow companies, or even individuals, to pay for the right to name some government buildings, highways, bridges and parks.

Then on Thursday came the idea of closing and merging more than 40 government call centres.

Ideas nothing dramatic

Kevin Lacey of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which advocates reduced government spending, said the "nickel-and-diming" in these proposals show the Liberals aren't ready to make the real spending cuts that are needed.

"All of these measures are positive," he said, "but they're so small. We're really skirting the big issues. Unless the government does something dramatic on reducing government spending, taxpayers should hold on to their wallets because we're going to see big, big tax increases."

The slow trickle of proposals comes ahead of a comprehensive report Boudreau will release Friday that will lay out a range of possible spending cuts and tax measures for New Brunswickers to consider.

Boudreau said he wanted these individual ideas to get some publicity, because he expects proposals on the Harmonized Sales Tax and highway tolls will dominate coverage of the main report itself.

"I suspect that there might be half a dozen options there that may attract more attention than others, and then everything else gets lost in the mix," he said. "We wanted to make sure some of them got some air time."