Quebec is one of the best places to live on this planet. However, this does not make it free from episodes of state stupidity. Each time a media reports the setbacks of humans who face the dysfunction, the heaviness or the rigidity of the different levels of government, it touches me, it challenges me. Each time the Public Protector’s report is published — some passages of which are disturbing — I tell myself that we can do better, that we must do better.
Have we really considered the needs and realities of humans — whether they are citizens, users, patients, parents, students, newcomers, business leaders — when putting in place a law, a measure, a program, a regulation, a procedure or a digital solution? I doubt it. We think we know humans, but we have never really met them.
The state apparatus has never been bigger. We have invested considerable sums in digital solutions. And, despite everything, the situation is deteriorating. And I’m not even talking about the — astronomical — cost overruns of everything we undertake in Quebec. According to a recent study carried out by SOM, the provincial government and municipalities are the sectors where the citizen experience has deteriorated the most since last year.
Does the State really know what it is doing? Does he make the right decisions? Has he thought carefully about the impact of these on humans?
Despite good intentions, it seems that certain elected officials, senior managers and professionals have forgotten their reason for being, that is to say, to serve people… and not the other way around.
As for state employees, the situation is so critical that, in certain organizations, the departure rate is close to 20%. Understaffing, convoluted processes, outdated or “buggy” IT systems, undocumented or obsolete processes, poorly defined roles and responsibilities, a time-consuming validation chain or systemic indecision are just a few of the things that are going wrong in government. Difficult for an employee to remain mobilized in such a context.
We still continue to add measures, programs, financial aid and articles of law. All this overwhelms the poor employee who tries as best he can to master a multitude of rules, while having to explain them to the citizen who is stunned, confused, and sometimes frightened and anxious in the face of so much complexity. “It’s going to be complicated,” the employee said to himself. “It’s going to be complicated,” the citizen said to himself.
Despite laudable digital transformation efforts, many public organizations have remained in the 20e century, in the age of paper, forms, post and fax. Quebec’s technological debt is considerable. You only have to visit a hospital to see it. The digital health record is long overdue. The government digital identity project is stalling. For many, artificial intelligence seems out of reach, even though it is part of the solution. It’s not much better in terms of infrastructure. Schools are in ruins. The same is true of certain hospitals, where the presence of insects prevents operations.
The government must reinvent itself, and it’s urgent. Its current ways of doing things, its waste of human, financial and material resources, and its inaction will inevitably lead it to implosion… and it has already begun.
We have to think differently. Solutions exist, as long as we want to question the sacrosanct status quo. To quote Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”