British Columbia Assessment has worked with Cognos, an Ottawa, Ont.-based provider of business intelligence and corporate management solutions, to implement Assessment LinkBC, which provides real-time access to property information via Web browsers. Assessment LinkBC, powered by the Cognos Enterprise Business Intelligence Series, allows users to analyze trends -- whether by municipality or by neighborhood -- in property types and values.
Read more: Canada: BC Assessment upgrades property information tools
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.
Read more: Canada: Outsourced online parking tickets ease municipal payment management
The IT industry and public sector think citizens are clamouring for the delivery local services online, but that’s not necessarily so, local government experts told the Municipal Information Systems Association's (MISA) 2004 Forum this week.
"It's about using technology to improve services to people," said Henri-Francois Gautrin, parliamentary assistant to Liberal Premier Jean Charest. Gautrin said e-government will also help save money, estimating the province's Revenue Department will save $18 million a year because it's cheaper to process income tax reports online.
Read more: Canada: Quebec government hopes to be online and fully accessible by end of 2007
Earlier this month, Accenture ranked Canada first in "e-government maturity" compared to 21 other countries, including the United States.
Read more: Canada: More harmonization of GOL services needed