From
23–25 July 2015, Senator Wilfred Moore, Q.C., Vice-Chair led a delegation from
the Canadian Section of the Canada–United States Inter-Parliamentary Group
(IPG) to the annual summer meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA)
in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The other delegate was Senator Scott
Tannas. The delegation was accompanied by Ms. June Dewetering, Senior Advisor
to the Canadian Section.
THE
EVENT
Founded
more than a century ago when President Theodore Roosevelt gathered state governors
in order to discuss the nation’s resources, the NGA is the collective voice of
U.S. governors from the 50 states, three territories and two commonwealths. It
is also a public policy organization that represents the governors on Capitol
Hill and before the U.S. Administration on federal issues that affect them, and
that develops and implements solutions to public policy challenges.
The
NGA, which meets in the winter and summer each year, is supervised by a chair,
vice chair and nine-person executive committee, and governors participate on
five issue-related standing committees – Economic Development and Commerce,
Education and Workforce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and
Public Safety, and Natural Resources – and, on occasion, on special ad hoc
bipartisan committees and task forces. At the 2015 summer meeting, each of the
five standing committees held a session.
The
theme for the NGA’s activities in 2015 – including the winter and summer
meetings – is “Delivering Results.” This initiative has been selected by NGA
Chair Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. Next year, Utah Governor Gary
Herbert will chair the NGA, and his theme is “States: Finding Solutions,
Improving Lives.”
DELEGATION
OBJECTIVES FOR THE EVENT
Members
of the IPG’s Canadian Section have been attending the NGA’s winter and summer
meetings for several years. At this meeting, delegates spoke with a number of
governors, including Governors Steve Beshear (Kentucky), Terry Branstad (Iowa),
Kate Brown (Oregon), Jack Dalrymple (North Dakota), Maggie Hassan (New
Hampshire), John Hickenlooper (Colorado), Dannel Malloy (Connecticut), Earl Ray
Tomblin (West Viriginia) and Gina Raimodo (Rhode Island). At the meeting’s
opening session, Governor Hickenlooper recognized the presence of the IPG
delegation.
Their
interactions with governors and others enable Canadian members of the IPG to
achieve better the aims of finding points of convergence in respective national
policies, initiating dialogue on points of divergence, encouraging exchanges of
information and promoting better understanding on shared issues of concern.
Moreover, the NGA meetings provide the IPG’s Canadian Section with an important
means by which to provide input to, and gather information about, state-level
issues that affect Canada. It is anticipated that the Canadian Section’s
attendance at the NGA’s winter and summer meetings will continue.
ACTIVITIES
DURING THE EVENT
The
NGA’s 2015 summer meeting included the following plenary and committee
sessions:
·Delivering
Results (opening session)
·Innovative
State Strategies for Tourism and Economic Development (joint committee session:
Economic Development and Commerce, and Natural Resources)
·Taking
Action to Address the Nation’s Opioid Crisis (joint committee session: Health
and Human Services, and Homeland Security and Public Safety)
·Skills
for the Future: Career Pathways Accelerating State Economies (committee
session: Education and Workforce)
·Health
Care Transformation (closing session).
This
report summarizes the key points made at the sessions.
DELIVERING
RESULTS
Peter
Hutchinson, Accenture Public Services Strategy
·“Delivering
results” is about making the “extraordinary” the “ordinary.”
·“Results”
are the difference between what people expect to be delivered and what is delivered.
·If
people are doing everything except “the main thing,” then they are not “getting
the job done.”
·In
delivering results, it is important to keep “the main thing” the main thing on
which everyone is focused.
·If
people are put in a position to experience the consequences of their actions,
they will “get the job done” and achieve results.
·It
is not enough to “get the job done”; to “deliver results,” it must be
communicated that the job was done and that the results were delivered.
·Private-
and public-sector providers of goods and services should look for opportunities
to connect with the people who are served; with technology, these connections
are increasingly easy.
·Means
should be found to make it easier to “do the right thing” and harder to “do the
wrong thing”; incentives should be designed to bring about the desired result.
·At
times, it is hard to predict people’s behaviour; people voluntarily comply with
tax requirements, and recycle perhaps because of social pressure rather than
legal obligation, yet often they do not follow posted speed limits, perhaps
because of peer pressure to speed up.
·It
is important to focus on asking the right question; for example, consider the
following two questions:
§Which school has the
highest test scores?
§Which school “moves”
their students the farthest?
·Data
should be used to determine whether a positive difference is being made for the
people who are being served.
·Leaders
change things to make them better.
·People
are elected not to maintain the status quo, but rather to make things better
and, ideally, to make the “extraordinary” the “ordinary.”
INNOVATIVE
STATE STRATEGIES FOR TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Robert
Nutting, The Pittsburgh Pirates
·It
is important to build a culture of customer service every day.
·Sports
teams can attract tourists, and they both support and bring about economic
development; the multiplier effects are significant.
·Often,
sports teams are active in the community.
David
Allen, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
·American
sportspeople have significant economic impacts.
·The
United States needs a healthy landscape of private and public lands.
·Land,
water and wildlife resources are renewable, but they must be managed
responsibly.
·The
public and private sectors need to work together in developing land management
plans.
·Rural
life matters, and the United States cannot afford to lose its rural areas.
R. Cooper
Shattuck, The University of Alabama
·The
phrase “think green” entered public discourse about 35 years ago.
·In
order for natural resources to be appreciated, people need to be able to access
them.
TAKING
ACTION TO ADDRESS THE NATION’S OPIOID CRISIS
Mary
Bono, Collaborative for Effective Prescription Opioid Policies
·Opioid
use and abuse are serious public health issues, although there are many programs
available to help users and abusers.
·There
is a need to provide access to clinically necessary treatments and affordable
recovery options, as well as to overcome the stigma associated with recovery.
·Support
for those who have overcome opioid use and abuse should last a lifetime.
Debra
Houry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
·Heroin
use is part of a larger substance abuse problem, and is having unintended
consequences, such as HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks.
·Public
health and law enforcement agencies, and communities, came together and were
successful in reducing car crash deaths by more than 50%; the same can be done
regarding drug overdoses.
·The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Prescription Drug Overdose
Prevention for States initiative is a funding opportunity for state health
departments; resources and support will be provided with a view to preventing
prescription drug overuse, misuse, abuse and overdose.
·Some
state-based interventions in the area of opioid use are improving outcomes, and
these states’ best practices should be provided to other states.
·Opioid
prescribing guidelines will be released.
·Prescription
drug monitoring programs should be made easier to use.
Patrick
Glynn, Quincy Police Department
·People
who are abusing drugs have a disease and should be treated as such; they may
commit criminal acts, but they are not criminals.
·The
PETER Theory should be used:
§prevent;
§educate;
§treat;
§enforce; and
§reduce.
·Sources
of prescription opioids include physicians, family members and friends.
SKILLS
FOR THE FUTURE: CAREER PATHWAYS ACCELERATING STATE ECONOMIES
Secretary
Thomas Perez, U.S. Department of Labor
·Attention
should be paid to “disability” employment, or to employing disabled persons;
the focus should be the last seven letters of the word “disability,” rather
than the first three letters.
·U.S.
employment opportunities abound, and there are job openings in a variety of
sectors.
·There
is a need to ensure a skills superhighway, with appropriate “on” and “off”
ramps.
·Apprenticeships
are a “tried and true” method of workforce development, and Germany’s
apprenticeship system is a particularly notable model.
·Apprenticeships
have application in a range of sectors, including skilled trades, information
technology and health care.
·Apprenticeships
are like college without the associated debt, and community colleges are the
“secret sauce” of success.
·The
best way to reduce recidivism is to ensure that people have the skills they
need to obtain gainful employment.
·Training
should be demand-driven, with curricula designed by educational institutions in
cooperation with employers.
Crystal
Bonds, City College of New York
·Youth
should have pipelines from school to the workforce.
·The
demands of the 21st century workforce are changing, and science,
technology, engineering and mathematics education is more important and more
prevalent than ever.
·All
students should be exposed to a wide body of knowledge.
·There
is a need to train people for the jobs that have not yet been created.
Harold
Levy, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
·The
cost of education is high.
·There
are a great many extremely talented students in community colleges.
·Some
low-income students do remarkably worse than high-income students of equal
ability, and some capable low-income students do not see themselves as going to
college; as well, low-income students may not attend the best school to which
they are capable of gaining acceptance.
·Low-income
students may take longer to complete college, and they are less likely to
attend graduate school.
·Educational
outcomes have security implications; consider, for example, that defence sector
workers need a security clearance, which requires them to be American-born; as
well, they need to be educated in such fields as science, technology,
engineering and mathematics.
HEALTH
CARE TRANSFORMATION
Secretary
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
·Improving
the quality and value of health care are important goals.
·For
far too long, the United States’ health care system has failed to put the
patient first; that said, some progress is being made, with increased safety in
hospitals, a reduced rate of readmission and assurance that those with
pre-existing health conditions cannot be denied health insurance coverage.
·Empowered
and knowledgeable “consumers” should be at the centre of their health care.
·Health
care providers should be paid for the value, rather than the volume, of health
care provided; incentives should focus on quality, and the fee-for-service
model should be changed to a model that pays for outcomes.
·People
with substance use issues should be connected with needed treatments.
·Opioid
prescribing practices should be, and are being, improved.
·The
revolution in biomedical research will lead to fundamental changes to health care.
Respectfully submitted,
Hon. Janis G.
Johnson,
Senator, Co-Chair
Canada-United States
Inter-Parliamentary Group
Gord Brown, M.P.
Co-Chair Canada-United States
Inter-Parliamentary Group