Mari-Len De Guzman

The Ontario Public Service is ramping up its recruitment strategy in preparation for the expected retirement of many of its workers over the next ten years, according to Ontario CIO Ron McKerlie.

The Ontario Public Service's Justice cluster will explore the possibility of instituting an electronic warrant (e-warrant) system across the province, according to its CIO John DiMarco. The Justice cluster has just completed a pilot project for the e-warrant system, in which a justice of the peace is able to issue police search warrants electronically through the use of electronic signatures, DiMarco told attendees at a recent breakfast forum held in Toronto hosted by the Information Technology Association of Canada.

The Ontario Public Service's I&IT organization has a green strategy and it's serving as a framework for various technology implementations and procurement, according to Ontario CIO Ron McKerlie.

British Columbia's Ministry of Health is creating a Health Authority Shared Services organization tasked to pursue non-clinical shared services initiatives among the province's health authorities. Health Minister George Abbott cited achieving cost reduction and resource optimization as the rationale for the undertaking.

Canada is trailing the U.S. at encouraging more entrepreneurs and creating new businesses, according to a recent study released by Vancouver-based The Fraser Institute. The study entitled, Measuring Business Creation in Canada and the United States, examines new business creation in all 50 U.S. states and 10 Canadian provinces.

Actively engaging the constituency is key to the success of public sector organizations. That's the belief of many government executives surveyed recently by the Economist Intelligence Unit. In reality, however, despite that belief only a quarter of those surveyed say that they are deeply engaged with their constituents.

Increasing service delivery while driving down per unit cost is the goal that the Ontario government wants to attain through a common infrastructure and information technology strategy. Ontario CIO Ron McKerlie outlined this vision and the role that private partners play at an ITAC-hosted forum in Toronto this week.

Espionage is setting up shop on the Internet as governments around the world increasingly use the Web for intelligence gathering, according to McAfee Inc.'s Virtual Criminology Report. Security analysts believe cyber espionage will be one of the biggest threats to governments and national security in 2008 and will spur what analysts are calling a "cyber cold war."