IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Open house scheduled for November 16 to showcase CITM’s Smart Mobility R&D Network (SMN) and Smart City IoT Data Repository

SmartCone Technologies, Canada’s leader in IoT (Internet of Things) solutions is proud to announce its technology partnership with the Centre for Integrated Transportation and Mobility (CITM). SmartCone is working to build a database Architecture and Platform that will capture data from all Smart Mobility Networks, both 4G & 5G elements, Intelligent IoT Nodes, C-V2X device, IoT devices and other sensors installed on the Smart Mobility Networks. Currently, there are two Smart Mobility Network sites in operation within the City of Hamilton, a public testbed located on the Mountain in the City of Hamilton, referred to as the “Urban Test Environment” and a private testbed within McMaster Innovation Park, referred to as the “Office Park Test Environment”.

The joint investment will connect most of the city with Telus’ PureFibre network

Spruce Grove, Alberta has partnered with west-coast telecom giant Telus to equip the city with a high-speed fibre optic internet network.

Through a $54 million joint investment, over 90 percent of homes and businesses in Spruce Grove are expected to gain access to Telus’ PureFibre network by the end of 2023.

Three years into his job as the steward of Ontario’s electronic health records program the head of eHealth Ontario said the organization has learned three valuable lessons about technology deployment that would help them deliver on a promise to have the health records of every Ontarian in digital form by 2015.

Topmost among these lessons, according to Greg Reed, CEO of eHealth Ontario, was accepting that the organization can’t go it alone.

But that’s what happened in the long-term palliative care ward at Baycrest Health Sciences Centre in north Toronto. One day early last summer, a nurse named Maria De Leon popped a computer tablet onto his lap and asked him if he’d mind tapping in answers to 10 basic questions, including the degree of pain that he was feeling, his appetite, his mood and his energy level. Braun still has a lot of zest despite his badly damaged heart, and he was only too happy to get back online, especially if it spared Baycrest staff from filling out the questionnaire on paper. “I’m always happy to save some trees,” he joked.

Digital literacy is crucial for the public to understand the changes in our lives. To date, we’ve largely underplayed one widely available and publicly accessible avenue to a digitally literate public: libraries.

AI changes so quickly. In just the past year, we have ricocheted between the introduction of ChatGPT to the idea that AI could possibly destroy humanity to the recent OpenAI management drama. We have a proposal: to keep on top of AI, Canadians should turn to the hard-earned human intelligence available at … their local libraries.

Ottawa will join other major North American cities in sharing traffic data with Google’s Waze app, the city announced Thursday.

Waze provides drivers with crowd-sourced, real-time information to help avoid construction, accidents and other delays on the road.

Almost 10,000 scheduled medevacs annually, for total population of under 20,000

Despite new telehealth services that allow Cree patients to undergo certain medical procedures in their home clinics, more Cree are travelling south for medical treatment every year.

"The work goes up 10% every year" for the department dealing with medical travel, said Cree Health Board Chairperson Bella Petawabano this week at the Cree Nation Government's annual general assembly in Ouje-Bougoumou, northern Québec.

Collaboration established itself early as the theme of the 20th annual GTEC conference here this week, and the federal government’s chief information officer joined in with her Report from the CIO.

“Collaboration is what will power the transformation of the public service,” Corrine Charette said in her half-hour address to a packed auditorium.

The Federal Government has announced plans to extend its rural broadband initiative Connecting Canadians to include an additional 65,000 households.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister Navdeep Bains said Friday from Niagara-on-the-Lake that 23 Internet service providers across Canada are receiving approximately $34.5 million to increase broadband Internet access for more than 65,000 households in rural areas across Canada.

During a keynote speech at the 2013 e-Health: Accelerating Change conference, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, announced funding from the Harper Government to support research projects focused on developing innovative new electronic health (ehealth) technologies. These technologies will capitalize on advances in electronic patient records, internet technology and mobile devices.

"Our Government continues to invest in and promote health care innovation to improve the health of Canadians and increase the efficiency of the health care system," said Minister Aglukkaq. "These research projects aim to develop products that empower patients, assist health care providers, and enable better population health monitoring."

"Our Government believes Veterans have the right to receive better and faster service, and to access their personal information in the way that they choose when they choose," said Minister Blaney. "With these new tools, Veterans can connect with the Department at any time of the day or night, and from their mobile device."

The province of Alberta went through an IT revamp reminiscent of what the year-old Shared Services Canada organization is attempting, and came through it with key measures of user satisfaction running in the 90 per cent range.

How did Alberta do it?

The Calgary Police Service became the first force in Canada to start using facial recognition software to match suspects against a mug shot database this week, but it likely won't be the last.

The use of facial recognition technology is growing not just in law enforcement and security fields but also in commerce.

The technology, which allows patients to see, hear and speak with their health care providers without leaving their own community, has made a huge difference for five-year-old Brayden Bigoraj.

Instead of loading up to Edmonton, Brayden and his family, who live in Red Deer, say doctor check-ups have never been easier thanks to teleconferencing.

Overall, Canadians are satisfied with online tax filing, but privacy concerns and lack of digital skills mean that achieving a fully digital tax system will take time.

It is tax season once again and Canadians are busy preparing their tax returns. Most filers will submit a return online, either directly through NETFILE or by having an accounting firm or tax preparation company submit it online through EFILE. Electronic filing of taxes has quietly become the most-used electronic service provided by the government of Canada.

The Ontario government is delivering a new digital justice solution that will transform how people handle their legal matters at the Superior and Ontario Courts of Justice. The Courts Digital Transformation initiative will be the most significant single step forward in the digital evolution of justice in Canada, replacing outdated paper-based procedures with an online platform to manage cases, documents and schedules.

“Our government’s new digital solution is a game-changer that will provide Ontarians with on-demand access to their legal matters,” said Attorney General Doug Downey. “Building on numerous recent breakthroughs, this central piece of the Justice Accelerated Strategy will provide the tools needed to better meet expectations for how justice can be done in 2021 and beyond.”

Thomson Reuters wins contract to build system for delivering more services online

Ontario is investing $166 million to deliver more legal services online, replacing paper-based procedures with a digital platform that will provide better access to the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice.

It’s been just over a year since the federal government began consolidating IT functions, but there’s still some uncertainty among companies that sell technology services and products about what it will mean for them.

The first in a series of roundtables held last week with the private sector didn’t clear things up much, says the head of CABiNET, which represents small and medium sized providers of IT and consulting services to the federal government.

A coalition of Canada’s urban technology organizations has formed the Open City Network (OCN), a non-profit that aims to develop best practices regarding data governance and technology in smart cities.

The OCN, which launched this week, is a medium for stakeholders to participate in the formation of new technology and policy for smart cities. The Kitchener-based organization also intends to join forces with various levels of government in Canada to tackle the policy proposals of smart city technologies. Through this collaboration, the organization is hoping to develop a framework of standards and procedures for data exchanges in smart cities.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement believes the Canada Revenue Agency should not have deleted any instant messages if they were related to government business, according to his spokeswoman.

“If the (messages) were of business value and deleted, then the rules were broken. If the CRA can prove that they were transitory in nature — if it was, ‘meet you at the coffee shop in five minutes’ — then that is considered not of business value, but that is up to the CRA to prove,” Stephanie Rea, his director of communications, said this week.