Canada's experience in terms of collaboration for public service delivery, also referred to as "Alternative Service Delivery or ASD," is rather recent. The Canadian government officially confirmed its determination to undertake a program to change the management of its activities in 1997.

"The Government will undertake its mandate in a spirit of collaboration and partnership with all its partners from Canadian society."

             (Speech from the Throne, September 24th, 1997).

More recently, in its action plan for the years 1999 to 2002, the Treasury Board Secretariat indicated that promoting innovation at the service level is one of its priorities. To achieve this goal, it plans to diversify service delivery methods and integrate approaches to service delivery, including partnerships with other ministries and levels of government or between the public, private and community sectors⁷.

In addition to motivations linked to its difficult financial situation, the Canadian government recognises the need to develop collaboration as a means of allowing its local suppliers to acquire pertinent expertise and thus gain a foothold on the global market scene. If it neglects this aspect, not only will Canadian suppliers fail to compete in global markets, but they will be outdone by foreign companies on their own territory.

Even though citizens may be somewhat satisfied with public service delivery in general, market liberalisation and further development of new technologies are exerting growing pressure on the demand for change. Moreover, e-commerce, which is in full-scale expansion in the private sector, is also likely to influence the way of doing things in government. As a result, the Canadian government has begun to develop a more efficient model of service delivery. Although we still rely on traditional methods, new approaches based on collaboration with the private sector have been introduced over the past few years. The government is currently exploring innovative partnership formulas emulating the experiments conducted in the United Kingdom. Thus, a federal-provincial-territorial task force is assessing the value of these formulas as they apply to highway construction. It should be noted however that the provinces have had a head start on the federal government as far as diversification of public service delivery methods is concerned.

The Canadian government's collaboration experience effectively began with the creation of major agencies like NavCan for air control management or the CFIA in the food inspection field, and it continued with the creation of partnerships⁸ mainly designed for public infrastructure design, construction, and operation.

Transportation and the environment are the most dynamic fields. There are numerous partnership agreements for the construction of highways, bridges and other infrastructures, or for water treatment and waste management, and these account for more than 50% of all the collaboration projects carried out in the country. In this context, Toronto's Highway 407 project is considered a monumental achievement. The project met all of its objectives, with no budget overruns, and was completed ahead of schedule. Some people disagree with this point of view, claiming that the original operators were unable to meet their objectives. In their opinion, this explains the recent sale of the project to a private consortium whose partners include SNC Lavalin and the Caisse de Dépôt. Nevertheless, the project serves as a technological showcase for Canadian expertise and made it possible to export this know-how to Israel and the State of New York. The Confederation Bridge also deserves to be mentioned as an example. It involves a 35-year concession contract valued at close to one billion dollars. At the end of this term, the consortium, Strait Crossing Joint Venture Inc., will transfer ownership to the Canadian government.

Another innovative project worthy of mention is the construction of schools in Nova Scotia. As a result, the province will have a modern network of "connected" schools by relying on the private sector to design, build, finance and operate some thirty schools.

Other projects are especially interesting because of their innovative use of ICTs. In Quebec, for example, the Commission de santé et sécurité au travail (CSST) joined a private consortium to create an extranet linking major companies, hospitals, rehabilitation centres and CSST work accident victims in order to speed up the processing of claims. In Ontario, the Toronto Children's Hospital uses the Internet to provide information to young patients and their families, and to exchange patient information with other hospitals and clinics. The ministère du Tourisme, in collaboration with Bell and associated partners, set up a portal (project underway) to provide information and reservation services, while Emploi Québec has deployed a network of 3000 terminals that are accessible to job hunters. In New Brunswick, remote health services (telemedicine) are available in outlying areas in order to follow up on patients who have had major surgery in a regional hospital centre.

Canada's collaboration experience with respect to public service delivery is therefore interesting and diversified but according to Economic Development Canada (1998), it remains very pragmatic, with no firm direction or suitable regulatory framework. While governments do explore these opportunities and believe that they represent the path to the future, the movement is not universally supported. Certain projects have been severely criticised and it has been claimed that the private sector solely takes advantage of the benefits derived from such an approach. Furthermore, since the public is used to massive government intervention producing very satisfactory results, the urgency to act is not felt as intensely. Politicians and public officials are nonetheless convinced of the necessity to push forward and claim that the movement is up and running. Most of them are receptive to these experiments and several provinces are currently offering management guides in order to efficiently support the efforts of ministries, agencies and local administrations. Canada is therefore in the learning stage, and in the near future, public policies will undoubtedly be issued to promote new collaboration methods and govern their application.