Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

In a number of areas, efficiencies already introduced in the OPS should be extended to
the BPS. Among these:
� Shared services for back-office functions (e.g., payroll, financial transactions, procurement,
collections and insurance) and common administrative services (e.g., printing, mail,
translations and asset management) can save money;
� The consolidation of I&IT services in the OPS saved $100 million per year; savings would
be greater if this were pushed out to the BPS;
� A standardized framework would enable the BPS to leverage its immense purchasing
power through collaborative purchasing, standardization of products and processes,
and back-office consolidation; and
� Centralized maintenance practices already established in the OPS should be extended
to the BPS.
Transfer payment and grant programs in the OPS are ripe to deliver centralized efficiencies.
Because many organizations are funded by several ministries, the government has trouble
assessing the overall picture and recipient organizations are frustrated at dealing with multiple
requirements. A new enterprise grants management system, developed by two ministries to
overcome these problems, is set to launch shortly; expanding it to the entire OPS would
spread its costs across more ministries.
Government Business Enterprises
The government of Ontario owns four government business enterprises (GBEs): the Liquor
Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), Ontario
Power Generation (OPG) and Hydro One. They contribute substantial sums to the provincial
treasury — $4.6 billion in 2010–11 alone. Together, their net assets amounted to $17.6 billion
at the end of last fiscal year.
We looked at two distinct approaches to generating further value from them: the government
could sell all or part of each business; or it could improve business efficiencies while retaining
full government ownership.
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