Previous page:Lightening the paper burden
But BizPaL is not only about saving time. When Montrat addressed the 2005 Lac Carling Congress to describe the project, she pointed out that Canada's two million small businesses were disproportionately affected by confusing and overlapping compliance regulations. Business owners faced the risk of involuntary non-compliance because they didn't know and couldn't find what regulations existed.
When the City of Ottawa conducted a feasibility study before launching the program in September 2006, it learned the value of BizPaL as an incentive for abiding by the law.
"To build a business case for doing this, we actually sat in the lobby where small business people were coming in," recalls Philip Clarke, director of client service and public information.
"After they had completed their transactions, we did some intercept interviews. One of the quotes we got back from a business person was, 'If you want me to do the right thing, don't send me on a wild goose chase.' As soon as I heard that quote, I knew we had to do this."
Business owners are becoming more aware of BizPaL as a place to find answers to how to do the right thing. In Halton Region, Ont., 15 to 20 people a day now use the service, accessed from several municipalities within the region, west of Toronto. In Ottawa, 500 people used BizPaL in its first full quarter of operation.
Carrying the standard
On the evening of November 1, 2006, a group of officials representing the federal government, provinces, territories and municipalities stood beaming onstage at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel Conference Centre in Toronto to acknowledge the applause of almost 900 senior executives from the public and private sectors across the country.
Trophies in hand, the officials took turns praising the BizPaL partnership that had just received the Diamond Award of Excellence from the Canadian Information Productivity Awards (CIPA), one of the most sought-after business awards in the country.
The CIPA award was perhaps the most highly publicized of a series of awards that BizPaL garnered during 2006, including the Government of Canada's Public Service Award of Excellence; a silver medal for a GTEC 2006 Distinction Award in the Cross-Jurisdictional Partnerships, National Awards category; and an honourable mention for the 2006 Agatha Bystram Award for Leadership in Information Management from Library and Archives Canada and the Council of Federal Libraries.
In addition to the awards, 2006 witnessed a series of upbeat news releases by Industry Canada and regional governments as the BizPaL pilot program spread. From the Yukon, it went to Ontario and B.C. with pilot projects in Halton Region and Kamloops, then to Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and in early 2007 to Alberta and Nova Scotia. The program has been praised in reports by Accenture, Gartner Inc. and the CFIB.
All this good press has made BizPaL the standard-bearer for interjurisdictional service delivery and an example to civil servants of the potential recognition to be gained by pursuing such projects.
Collaborative development
Participants say BizPaL is recognized as a watershed in the management of interjurisdictional projects and Web-based service delivery.
"In the past, people had focused on the portal idea, building a service in one place," says Ben Benoit of Lightning Tree Consulting Inc., one of three consultants from the private sector who serve the BizPaL Secretariat and assist partners in implementing the service.
"We realized that clients often don't know which level of government to approach with respect to regulations. Some will go to municipalities as a starting point. So we decided that BizPaL should be delivered everywhere that made sense."
Delivering the service via the Web sites of partner jurisdictions b with their branding b was novel for the federal government.
"It's not about Industry Canada," declares Montrat. "It's about jurisdictions working together to improve service delivery to small and medium-sized enterprises.
"Somebody who opens BizPaL in B.C. will think it is a B.C. service because it is being offered through their Web site. Each partner has its own look and feel for the service. It's theirs. Each has ownership of its own data and autonomy within its own jurisdiction. That is one reason BizPaL has been working as well.
Continued:Process and technological advancements
Download the proceedings from Lac Carling 2006 here
Related content:
Business project aims to cut down on clutter
Canadian Information Productivity Awards
Businesses win big time with BizPal
Feds seek to be service providers
Ten tips for effective partnerships
Lac Carling X: A turning point?
Municipalities on the march
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