The ninth annual Lac Carling Congress – the pre-eminent gathering of leaders in electronic service delivery in the public sector – is scheduled for May 15-17 at Saint-Saveur, Que. Political leaders who head these projects are also expected to participate.
Because privacy is more important than ever, developments in interjurisdictional privacy will be featured on a panel that is to include federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddard, B.C. Commissioner David Loukedelis, Bernard Courtois of the Information Technology Association of Canada, and David Primmer, CIO of Manitoba. Among other issues, the panel is to look at the privacy implications of outsourcing government services and information.
Because of the possibilities of public-private collaboration, Prof. John Langford of the University of Victoria is to report on progress since his presentation to last year’s Lac Carling Congress. Case studies of selected public-private undertakings, in Canada and internationally, will be featured.
Because the expectations of Canadians are crucial, an update on the latest research by the Institute for Citizen-Centred Service and the research sub-committee of the Public Sector Service Delivery Council Research Sub-Committee will be featured. The fourth issue of the ICCS publication Citizens First edition is to be available.
Because of the role of municipalities in service delivery, an interjurisdictional panel is to address the results of specific service mapping work. This session will review the evolution of service mapping from municipalities to provincial and federal governments.
A working session on service mapping issues is also planned.
The Congress will also report on selected service transformation projects underway at all levels of government. Anticipated sessions include an update on shared services work in B.C., Alberta and Ontario; a report from the working group on identity, authentication and authorization, an IM/XML update and a report on integrated birth registration.
The program is driven in part by conclusions at last year’s Congress, including:
All levels of government have more work to do to address the municipal perspective;
The ability of IT to enable transformation is far greater than the ability of the organizational cultures to adapt and manage such change;
Information management, privacy and service delivery have conflicting challenges that must be balanced appropriately;
New models of governance are increasingly more important;
Information Management should become a top priority for IT managers everywhere.
Organizers note that, as usual, articulating the right questions is a big part of the Congress – questions like:
Does it connect back to a government agenda?
How does the internal facings relate back to the external pieces?
How do you maintain the connection of governments and serving citizens?
Are public servants and staff one of these client groups?
The proverbial questions of who is doing what; which models are being used and what governance structures are working also remain critical issues. 056064
