January 15, 2020
Small Changes, Smart Decisions Yield Significant Savings for Manitobans
– – –Listening to Civil Servants, Fulfilling 100-Day Action Plan Commitment: Pallister
The Manitoba government is pleased to act on the advice of civil servants on various projects across government departments that will streamline operations, increase productivity, improve service delivery and ultimately save millions of taxpayer dollars, Premier Brian Pallister announced today.
“It pays to ask for advice. As part of our 100-Day Action Plan and our commitment to listening to Manitobans, our government set up the Idea Fund to support innovative solutions brought forward by the civil service,” said Pallister. “By making small changes and smart decisions millions of taxpayer dollars will be saved, while simultaneously improving the services we provide to Manitobans.”
As part of the province’s 100-Day Action Plan each department within government was asked to develop and submit at least five applications to access the Idea Fund. Examples of the projects that have been accepted and will be implemented are:
- An initial investment of $625,000 will be made to develop a new treasury management solution (TMS), with the view to automating the process. The TMS includes the development of a corporate banking strategy that will enhance cash flow visibility and improve investment management decisions, which will reduce borrowing costs and increase investment yield.
- A new automated toner delivery system will automatically send an electronic alert to suppliers when toner is low on 2,300 government network printers. The province could save upwards of $1.1 million over four years on a $155,000 investment and a return on investment of over 720 per cent.
- The Life’s Journey agency is building a custom home in Elie for individuals transitioning from the Manitoba Developmental Centre to community placement. The Idea Fund will be used to cover part of the construction costs, savings taxpayers an estimated $485,943 in net savings over four years.
- Video conferencing equipment will help Manitoba Justice officials save over $9,000 to better manage staff time, creating working efficiencies by eliminating time spent on travel between meetings.
- Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living has a proposal that will result in net savings of $74,000 over four years based on a $24,000 investment by cutting paperwork for specialist physicians prescribing selected drugs in the Exception Drug Status group.
The launch of the Idea Fund supports a whole-of-government approach to modernize the civil service, and find better way of doing things, shopping smarter and spending taxpayer dollars more effectively and efficiently, the premier noted.
The 100-Day Action Plan can be found at https://www.manitoba.ca/asset_library/en/proactive/100-day-action-plan-letter.pdf.
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