Existing and new services delivered by the City of Toronto are
now just one click away, with more services coming online in the
near future.
Since June all City services offered online have been
consolidated onto one site.
Now Torontonians can go to www.toronto.ca/onlineservices/index.htm
and see all of the services the city currently offers online in one
place.
The initiative is part of the Toronto's 311 project.
"It makes it a lot easier for people to find online services
quickly because we know that Internet users are impatient,
including me," said Colleen Bell, 311 project director. "We want to
find things in a couple of clicks."
Besides the online services, another part of the project
includes the 311 dialing service which is in the works right now,
where people will be able to request different city services in one call, said
Bell.
"Citizens will find that it is a lot easier to get a hold of the
City," said Bell.
Starting this fall, residents will be able to check the status
of their building application, register their pets and renew pet
registrations online, according to Bell.
"Pet registration has always been a bone of contention because
you always had to go in and do that in person."
Even more services are expected to be up by 2008, including
service orders for transportation problems like fixing pot holes,
ordering a recycling bin and requests for large appliances to be
picked up, said Bell.
"Online services like these free up staff," she said. "It allows
them to research and answer more complex problems instead of simple
requests that are often repeated."
The team that created the Web site is looking for feedback about
the site to make it as user friendly as possible, said Trish
Garner, project lead, online services.
"(The team has) come up with a navigation that is significantly
easier to use for the public and terminology that is easier to
understand," said Garner.
She said they are continually looking to make the site
better.
"We are using public feedback as well as internal feedback from
the people who actually provide these services, so with this
feedback we are improving the site on a continuous basis," said
Garner.
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