Reaching North - A Look at Service Canada Ontario Region
Transcript
Hi, I'm Karen and this is Anna-Marie.
We believe that it's important that all citizens have access to the incredible
programs and services that we provide here at Service Canada.
We continue to explore new and innovative ways to deliver programs and
services in Northern and Indigenous communities.
Working with community and Indigenous partners to build a
better Canada for all of us.
In this video, you'll learn about some of the transformational strategies
and projects taking place in Northern Ontario.
Which support relationship building,
collaboration, and being the face of the government.
I am so incredibly proud of the work that we've done together,
and I look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead
to demonstrate service excellence in action.
Wachiya! Hello! Bonjour!
My name is Merja Kerov-Rodas and I’m a Business Expertise Sr. Consultant with Citizen Services.
I’ll be guiding you through our journey today.
We’ll go back and look at all the amazing work
Service Canada, Ontario Region has done
to build strong relationships with Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario
and how it has evolved in the last few years.
Before we go on, let's start with a greeting from one of our own CSS'
in Sioux Lookout, June Trout.
Hello. Wachiya! [Greeting Oji-Cree]
Hello, my name is June Trout and
I'm originally from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug,
also known as Big Trout Lake.
I speak my own language which is Oji-Cree.
I have been working as a CSS since 2009 when I was hired as one of the four
indigenous CSS for the hybrid model.
Working in the outreach, remote First Nations
has been challenging and rewarding.
When you go to a First Nation community, you are expected to do everything,
meaning that they will ask for health cards,
driver's license, gun license, employee pensions
you are the face of the government, because we are the only ones going there.
I find the biggest challenges is usually the weather,
internet connectivity, and power outage.
The biggest rewards are the people.
They are so grateful with whatever little help we can help them with.
Our journey begins in 2007,
where Service Canada partnered with INAC
to engage with Indigenous peoples residing in all First Nations within Ontario
but also in friendship centres
and Service Canada centres amongst other avenues.
This meant hiring Indigenous Citizen Services officers.
Building relationships is the foundation to our work.
Being present in a community has helped develop an understanding
among different communities and their culture.
Let's hear a story from Louise about her experience fishing
and developing relationships in Big Trout Lake.
We met a gentleman by a name of Stan Bluecoat
which is the owner of the Sunset Lodge
to where our accommodations were.
He mentioned that he wanted to know at what time we needed a ride
because he was also our taxi driver.
The next morning, because he had to go and get his nets out of the water,
on our way to the fishing nets,
Stan explained to me that the youth weren’t fishing like they used to
in the past and they were just not interested
so the tradition was really - lost.
Once we got to the area, Stan showed me all the nets that were in the lake.
There was only three, which was sad because he said, usually,
they would have hundreds of nets in Big Trout Lake.
I asked him, I said, "what are you gonna do with all these fish?"
And he mentioned that he was going to clean them up that day
and he was going to drive them over to Wapekeka First Nation,
which is located about a half hour away from Big Trout Lake.
He was going to give them to the elders in the community
for an upcoming feast that they were going to have.
It made me realize how,
close the communities were
and the tradition was being kept alive by Stan,
which was amazing to me.
It is crucial that you mingle with the people that are there,
only for the fact that they'll get to know you.
Once people get to know you
they get to trust you,
once you’ve earned their trust,
then it opens up the relationship
to where we can start helping everyone.
Our initial eight First Nation-scheduled outreach sites began in 2008.
There were service by Citizen Service Officers
who were Indigenous and spoke Ojibway,
bringing Service Canada programs and services to Indigenous citizens
in their own community
and in their own language.
Multilingual services are being offered as well,
in Kenora Service Canada Centre for example,
services are also available in Ojibway.
I'm going to introduce you to Teia
who will tell you about her experience delivering
service through scheduled outreach within isolated and remote areas.
It’s nice when somebody comes into your community
to offer programs and services
that you can be able to have a dialogue with in your own language.
People that are in these isolated communities
speak only their language and are more comfortable and fluent speaking
their native dialect.
A lot of First Nation people don’t have the proper identification
and they don't have Social Insurance Numbers
and they can't get it because they don't have the birth certificate.
They also can’t apply for the Canada Pension Plan, the Old Age Security
or the Guaranteed Income Supplement
because they haven't filed their income tax
because they don't have their their birth certificate.
A lot of First Nation communities are not aware
of the programs and services that are out there to assist them.
Teia mentioned the importance of having someone who speaks the language
of the community we deliver service in
The Northern Ontario Remote Community Access Initiative,
or NORCA,
hires local community members in remote First Nation communities,
who speak various Indigenous languages
as casual employees over a three-year period.
I'm going to let Diana tell us more about this initiative
The idea behind NORCA is to have
28 communities hire one individual to represent the government
and be on-site for at least two days a week and
the advantages of NORCA would be
we're getting direct input from the community,
you're having an individual who's from that community
so they might be in a much better position to know who needs the services
be able to speak an indigenous language to those individuals
By hiring somebody from the community,
we have input from the Band membership
— they're referred through them.
We onboard them, we train them
We also still provide scheduled outreach to these locations
We've paired up each NORCA
employee with a mentor
somebody who works as a Citizen Service Specialist already
in the organization
and we found that has worked amazingly well
We have a great team, great staff,
everybody is committed to being able to make this a success
and trying to reach as many people as we can
Being committed to delivering service excellence
means our CSS’ travel a little differently than you may expect
Many First Nation communities are located in remote areas
which means that they are only accessible via fly-in or ice roads
There were times when we had to travel part of the way by canoe
Service Canada has been visiting these communities
by arranging fly-ins since 2009
Hope will tell us how she prepares for outreach delivery
which often requires adaptability and flexibility
and the interesting creatures she has come across
I think it's important is the CSS to be adaptable and flexible
which means to me, we have to be able to change direction on any schedule
So, sometimes we have flight delays,
sometimes, there are considerations in the community.
If there's a death in the community, we may have to cancel the trip
or we may have to reschedule.
There are special days that we can't go into the community.
Sometimes there's a hunting week or Aboriginal day,
and sometimes there's just an event going on if there's any reason that
we can't to come in or we have to reschedule,
we sometimes have to leave.
It's important when you go to the band office that you know,
you have to respect the space where you're going.
It's important to bring an extra set of slippers to wear.
We have to change when we go into the band office.
We have a list of tools and expectations
that we review and share with all new CSS'
But you're traveling to the north and it's a flight
We have to make sure you have something as simple as
bring your own toilet paper, your own soap.
They're not a regular hotel room, so they're not stocked.
The bear encounter — people love that story!
The bear was really curious and he was very friendly
and it seemed like he just wanted to spend time with us
I was traveling with June Trout, and so that opportunity
we had to travel to North of Geraldton and Aroland.
It let us take pictures, it climbed on the car
I thought it was gonna climb on the car
It did, a little bit and it's a rental, so
I was a little bit worried that I have to explain
why I had scratches all over the car.
But, it's a great opportunity to see what's out there in the north
Service Canada, Ontario Region also collaborates
with stakeholders to provide service excellence.
In 2014, CSS staff started delivering outreach for a variety of stakeholders
involved in the Ring of Fire
Which is a term associated with an area in the James Bay lowlands
located in Northern Ontario.
For example, Citizen Service Specialists participated
in a Webequie career fair
Diana will tell us a little more about this.
Webequie career fair was held at Webequie First Nation.
It's an annual event.
What happens there is a number of stakeholders
and government agencies are invited to provide information
to people in a community.
Recruiting happens, there’s a number of health and social programs
that also do delivery to the community.
Webequie was one we’ve participated in more than once,
but and then when we're talking about in particular —
there were over 500 participants.
It was very well served and most of the focus was on recruiting for
mining jobs or preparing individuals, and preparing the workforce to be skilled
and to be able to deliver
and participate in the jobs that will be coming in the future.
Identifying needs of a community can go beyond being present in career fairs.
By delivering service in remote communities,
our CSS’ are able to identify the needs in different communities.
Louise will tell us a story about getting passports to a community,
and how impactful it can be to provide great service.
Accessing passports in our latest pilot
in Big Trout Lake was a great experience.
We were able to have our NORCA person,
Cheryl McKay,
rally the people that needed passports and
she helped them get their birth certificates.
Once the birth certificates came in, then she was able to get
the Chief to be the guarantor for most
which is one of the challenges in a First Nations community because you need
someone holding a passport to be your guarantor.
Then it was about the pictures.
There was nobody trained in the community
to have the passport pictures taken.
However, when we started been looking for someone to take pictures,
there was a photographer in Big Trout Lake.
I was a liaison between the passport staff and
this photographer
and we were able
to make sure that his lighting was correct when he took passport pictures
we would get the feedback from Passport Canada
advising us what was wrong and what he should change with his camera.
If we hadn’t had that clinic in this community,
the expense they would have had to incur to go off reserve
would have been astronomical.
It would have been at least a thousand dollars per member
because they needed to fly out.
This way, we were able to go on-site
and they only had to purchase their photographs.
The members of the communities were really impressed.
Along with requesting another passport clinic in the near future.
It really makes you feel great when you can provide a service
that is really needed in a community
Through our outreach,
we have built some great relationships with northern communities.
Canada Revenue Agency recognized the inroads we had made
and wanted to collaborate as a way to contribute to a national undertaking
to increase uptake of Social Insurance numbers
and awareness of the Canada Child Benefit
to our on-reserve Indigenous population.
In 2016, we jointly visited
104 First Nations communities in Ontario
offering SIN clinics and joint information sessions on Canada Child Benefit.
Patsy is going to tell us about her experiences
with collaborating with CRA in Indigenous communities
and the importance of delivering the Canada Child Benefit.
We went out into I think a total of 104 different First Nation communities,
where we traveled with Canada Revenue agents
we brought information on our programs and services.
Canada Revenue would give information on their programs and benefits.
In most or a lot of the communities
Canada Revenue also trained a lot of community volunteer income tax preparing.
It was mostly empowering the communities to be able to
do their own tax returns
in order for them to receive benefits that they would be entitled to.
We built great relationships with the Canada Revenue agents.
At the beginning, we had some contacts in certain First Nation communities.
Most of the communities — we had no contacts at all.
We have been invited to come back and offer SIN clinics,
pension clinics, all sorts of other activities.
So, it's been a great —
A great experience.
Well, without a Social Insurance Number
a person cannot work in Canada
because you need a Social Insurance Number in order to
contribute to your taxes —
all sorts of benefits such as Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan
and so on.
And without a Social Insurance Number, you cannot complete a tax return.
People who do not complete tax returns are not
entitled to any of the benefits through Canada Revenue
Such as HST,
GST, Canada Child Benefits
I’ve seen some people complete
five, seven years worth of tax returns.
Canada Revenue Agency will go back ten years to review taxes
so we’re encouraging people to complete their tax returns.
Canada Revenue refers to it as a benefit return
because without the tax returns, you’re not receiving any of the benefits.
A lot of benefits as well for seniors...
They complete their tax returns
they are able to get their Guaranteed Income Supplement and allowance
I consider myself blessed to have a job where I am in a capacity to help people.
Every time I visit a community
I know I’ve made a big difference in certain lives.
In my past ten plus years at Service Canada,
we’ve been enhancing direct service delivery to
Northern and Indigenous communities
providing equitable access to programs and services that they need.
My amazing team travels across the north as the face of the government,
building relationships and collaborating to deliver excellent service.
I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to how Service Canada, Ontario Region
continues to transform service delivery in Northern Ontario
and the best is yet to come!