IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Through the Rural Connections Broadband program, the Ontario government is set to offer nearly $300,000 to expand South Glengarry's Internet access, increasing the area's high-speed coverage to 98 from 63 per cent. South Dundas and South Stormont are eligible for $77,677.

A priority of bringing faster Internet to rural areas could benefit local townships as part of the federal and provincial governments' joint $6.2-billion funding announcement last week.

The two levels of government finally shook hands on Ontario's portion of the national Building Canada plan that will invest $33 billion in long-term funding for infrastructure across the country.

For the first time, all 26 hospitals from the Bruce Peninsula to Windsor -- including London, Chatham, Woodstock, Sarnia, and Stratford -- are linked to a repository of digital images and test results via the Internet.

"This is about providing as much information to the front line practitioners as quickly as possible so they can provide the best level of care to the patient," said Greg Reed, the head of eHealth Ontario.

The County of Simcoe is eligible to receive up to $1 million in provincial funding to start local broadband infrastructure projects, through the Rural Connections Broadband program.

Timmins is one of six cities to be part of the first phase of the Ontario Telehomecare initiative, a partnership of Canada Health Infoway, the Ontario Telemedicine Network and the provincial government.

That’s one of the intentions under reforms to improve rural services within the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network.

Rural residents want a good level of health care services, which new reforms are seeking to ensure, chief executive Sandra Hanmer said Monday.

Numbers compiled by the Opposition Conservatives also show administrative costs ballooned to $80 million last year from $50 million in 2006-07, the first year of the LHINs' existence.

“The IT subcommittee will help the City to deliver service excellence,” said Councillor Wilkinson. “It will explore technologies and solutions to improve client service and achieve increased efficiencies, while providing an opportunity to work with Ottawa’s high-tech community, the unique resources of which can provide added value to the City in dealing with technology issues.”

The corporate services and economic development committee has voted in favour of eventually eliminating paper agendas for council and committee meetings and using electronic agendas instead.

The motion, introduced by Mayor Larry O'Brien, came after the mayor's task force on e-government released its findings and recommendations on how the city can better use technology.

With Presto – a contactless, automated fare system developed with the Government of Ontario – the project will result in "significant savings" to the City of Ottawa, according to the release.

It's part of an electronic government initiative being cheered on by Mayor Larry O'Brien that is aimed at helping the city cut $100 million in operational costs over the next three years.

Mayor Larry O'Brien released an 82-page report yesterday on transforming the use of technology that he and a task force on e-government claim will make the city run more efficiently.

The report concedes the city's information technology branch is operating "reasonably well," but says it's also "clear that information technology is not having a significant impact on the city."

Specifically, the Mayor's task force on e-government recommends the city adopt a citizen-centric approach to technology that allows residents to access municipal services without staff assistance. The report also suggests any new project proposal requiring an increase in staff also contain a technology-oriented alternative and that technology expenditures be viewed as an investment in productivity with a long-term payback, rather than being looked at through the lens of the annual budgeting process.

The southwestern Ontario municipality has turned to paytickets.ca to handle parking fine payments via the Web.

The move lets the town get its feet wet in electronic service delivery without making a huge investment, says Gord Lalonde, Oakville's IT director.

Inspired by social-networking features, the new platform will let patients and their health-care providers input and share information in a high security, high bandwidth online database.

It's a move Telus chief executive Darren Entwistle said will "revolutionize" health care.

"All privacy legislation in Canada goes back to fundamental principles. Health care is special in the sense of the directness of privacy concerns," says Power, recently appointed vice-president for privacy and security at the Smart Systems for Health Agency.

Younker outlines his security concerns in his 2010 report made public earlier this week. That report also highlighted serious concerns about delays in implementing the program and significant cost overruns.

The program wasn’t supposed to cost taxpayers a dime. But costs have ballooned to more than $15 million for taxpayers.

Health Minister Carolyn Bertram says she’s legally bound by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPP) to keep the information secret.

But Bertram said if she’s asked to produce the documents in the P.E.I. legislature she will obey that request.

Some of P.E.I.'s spending on moving medical records from paper to computers did not go through a competitive bid process, a review by the auditor general shows.

The Electronic Health Records Initiative was a major focus of Auditor General Colin Younker's annual report, released Wednesday.