Law Times

Page 6 July 11, 2016 • law Times www.lawtimesnews.com Ontario looking to jump into the digital age W anted: tech guru to transform massive organization rooted in the 1980s with bold leadership initiatives, innovation, and improved user experience. Salary: $200,000-plus a year. It's quite a job description and Ontar- io's just-launched international search for the newly created position of chief digital officer certainly hits all the right notes. We even have Canada's first Minister Responsible for Digital Government in the form of former health minister Deb Matthews heading up the team. The strategy sounds plausible enough, too: Ontario wants to be a leader in "ac- celerating how citizens engage and inter- act with government through the power of digital technology." To get there, they're looking to hire a CDO to digitally transform the province and design digital services and produce "around user needs, not government needs." It's an impressive idea, but, un- fortunately, it's 10 years too late. The courts and justice system is just one example of how far behind Ontario is in the digital age. It barely serves the cause of justice, let alone those who work in the system and the public that is osten- sibly served by it. That said, there are some examples of online services that work well for the pub- lic. Renewing licence plate stickers, for example, can be done online, avoiding those awful lineups. That is unless you have to get your driver's licence renewed and need a picture, of course. Parking tickets and Pro- vincial Offences Act fines can also be paid online. Your home property taxes can be reviewed and com- pared online at MPAC's side, but the list at Service On- tario is exceedingly short. Even then, many are links to download forms that must be printed, filled out, and mailed or delivered in per- son somewhere. In reality, though this new job posi- tion isn't about delivering projects such as eHealth, the debacle that is still behind schedule and wasted a billion dollars. Then there was Metrolinx Presto! The simple smart card fare system cost $700 million, making it the most expensive of its kind in the world. Most recently we saw the botched $242-million welfare caseload system roll out, which stumbled at launch and needed another $50 million to patch up. Ontarians are rightfully leery about massive digital projects with question- able returns when managed by civil ser- vants. So, the key focus for the new CDO in this newest initiative will be Ontario's Open Government project, which launched in 2013. It seeks to "create a more open and transparent government for the people of Ontario." They're nice words but somewhat tarnished by all that secrecy behind the sale of Hydro One and the revelation that e-mails and hard drives are routinely purged when there's a controversial deci- sion in the premier's office. Aside from better access to government services, the plan is also to make great swaths of government data- bases publicly accessible. At first glance, it may seem like a huge privacy breach in the making, but, in fact, it's part of al- lowing technology to do what it does best when focused in the right direction. The data is stripped of personal identi- fication, and the scope is staggering. There are literally hundreds of these data sets covering everything from law and public safety to climate change, driving behav- iour, and roads, arts and culture, and busi- ness and the economy. The data is in stan- dard formats and can be easily searched. With these massive data sets and the right questions, there can be enormously profitable results. This Big Data is a tech term for using intelligent search queries to extract patterns and other unique de- tails from massive databases. Businesses such as Wal-Mart, Cana- dian Tire, and General Electric have been using Big Data for years and it's time gov- ernments caught up. In some jurisdic- tions, for example, police departments are using crime data to predict when and where incidents are most likely to occur while local governments are querying welfare rolls to look for f lags that indicate fraud. Better late than never, it seems for Ontario. The appointment of a CDO "with a nimble team with start-up values" is a promising step. Making it a cross-ministry initiative by creating a Digital Government Board is also a forward-thinking move. However, let's be clear. The job of mov- ing Ontario from the 1980s into 2005 — let's call moving it to 2016 a "stretch goal" — is mammoth. If Ontario wants to move into the digital world quickly and make up for lost ground, it needs to look at standards and proven systems that can be quickly tweaked and customized and put online. This is no time — and there is no need — to reinvent digital wheels even if the end goal is better access, transpar- ency, and cost efficiencies. LT uIan Harvey has been a journalist for more than 35 years writing about a di- verse range of issues including legal and political affairs. His e-mail address is ianharvey@rogers.com. COMMENT ©2016 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. 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We're in an age where Black Lives Matters dominates the headlines and where Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recom- mendations are being instituted at law schools across the country. That's why discussions about diversity on the bench (and in the legal profession in general) isn't just a catchphrase, it's a mantra for our times. When federal Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould named 15 new judicial appointments this year, she heralded: "We know that our country is stronger, and our judicial sys- tem more effective, when our judges ref lect Canada's diversity." Except, as anyone who has set foot in a courthouse knows, we have so, so much farther to go. I have had the privilege of attending recent events where young, talented lawyers have expressed the need for greater diversity. Some of the most powerful and persuasive arguments I have heard have come through stories about how to understand communities, that you must ensure members of the community are sitting at the table in the first place in order to share their experiences. It is with this in mind, then, that I say how glad I am that Tanya Walker has been the first black female bencher elected in Toronto. In our front-page story on Walker, Donna Walwyn, the president of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, points out that the law society has struggled with diversity, but it is working hard to tackle the issue by reaching out to marginalized groups. "Any time we can introduce additional diversity into our governance, our regulatory process, is a good thing," she says. "I think we all know diversity of opinion, diver- sity of experience, and diversity at large is a benefi- cial thing to anybody, to any group or organization, and the same is true for benchers in the law society." We need more Walkers, and Walwyns. LT Queen's Park Ian Harvey

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