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Reviewing COPSC: 11 Case Studies of Ontario Community Portals

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Reviewing COPSC: 11 Case Studies of Ontario Community Portals Reviewing COPSC: 11 Case Studies of Ontario Community Portals Supplementary report for Reviewing COPSC: Building on the lessons of community portals Prepared for The Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade May 2006 Prepared by Invenire4 Ltd., Ottawa, Ontario COPSC Cases Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................1 1. Chatham-Kent..................................................................3 2. Elgin - St. Thomas ..........................................................35 3. Hamilton .......................................................................60 4. Hastings-Quinte .............................................................93 5. Kenora Region.............................................................. 114 6. Niagara Region............................................................. 139 7. Oxford County.............................................................. 163 8. Greater Sudbury........................................................... 199 9. Thunder Bay District ..................................................... 232 10. Wellington-Guelph ...................................................... 255 11. Windsor-Essex............................................................ 278 About Invenire ................................................................. 316 Acknowledgements We would like to thank those who contributed their knowledge, experience and time to the COPSC project. We would like to express our gratitude to the over 100 people who participated in the interviews; the COPSC project managers who helped us identify the interviewees within each project; as well as the COPSC program staff (Marta Lobko, Greg Mcfarlane, Henry Cheng, Mary Clark, and Yasser Muttaqi) who helped us get an overview of the projects and the Ministry perspectives. Particular thanks are due to Ann Hoy, Dick Ko, and John Cotsomitis at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade who helped us to understand the context for this study and gave us the support we needed when we needed it. Contributors Chris Wilson, Invenire4 Ltd Wayne Foster, Wayne Foster Communications Inc. Invenire4 Ltd., Ottawa, Ontario i COPSC Cases Introduction This supplementary report to “Reviewing COPSC: Building on the lessons of community portals” was prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and is a compilation of the case results produced as part of the COPSC program evaluation process. The aim of the review of the Connect Ontario: Partnerships for Smart Communities (COPSC) was to answer some fundamental questions: • To what degree have the individual community projects achieved their goals? • Did the projects reach the individuals and group audiences that they intended to reach? • In what way are the projects making a difference in their communities? • In what way are the projects helping the partners or agencies involved in the project? • Was the Province’s participation in these initiatives essential, useful and worthwhile? • To what degree did the overall COPSC program achieve its goals? It should be emphasized that because the community projects were all at different stages of completion, not all of the projects were able to provide the same kind of input to this evaluation. And although the Performance Measurement Plan set out a large variety of metrics that may have been desirable, it was understood that the projects would not be able to equally provide all of the quantitative or qualitative data specified (and in fact most were not able to supply much in the way of statistical data). Therefore, in this review the approach used was theory-based evaluation1 one that is used for initiatives that are not well-suited to a summative evaluation or statistical analysis of outcomes2. This evaluation approach began with development of a logic model for how a project should have operated (based on its original plan) and then compared it to how it was in fact operating. This approach essentially describes two simple stories -- expected and actual – and focuses the assessment on the differences, if any, between the two. The elements of the Logic Model centred on resources, activities, outputs, reach, outcomes or impacts (short, intermediate and longer term), and the relevant external influences3. For the COPSC review, the before and after stories were prepared as a series of 11 case studies and are presented herein. The methodology used to develop these case studies consisted of three stages: 1 Weiss, C. (1997) 2 W.K. Kellogg Foundation (1998) 3 Wholey, J.S. (1983) and (1987) Invenire4 Ltd., Ottawa, Ontario 1 COPSC Cases (1) consultation with key players in MEDT and MGS to determine what information was available, the detailed history of the Program, the kinds of priorities for looking back and going forward and the project terrain, (2) preparation of a draft document based on the above discussions, which formed the foundation of a Performance Measurement Plan (PMP) and an Interview Guideline that was used to guide data collection and subsequent interviews with key project stakeholders, and (3) extensive, in-depth interviews (over 100) with participants of the 11 COPSC project groups to validate and correct a draft community profile document and provide a basis for the conversation which generated the case studies. The community profiles included information (where available) on: • demographic information, • SMEs and SME support, • employment by industry, • economic development, • internet access, • access to Service Ontario Government Information Centres and other important community services The project profile that was built from the original project business plan provided the initial project logic model and included information on: • community priorities, • project goals, • services provided, • partners, • governance, • costs, • leverage expected The interviewers utilized a question guideline to engage subjects in a conversation rather than following explicit survey type questions. Interviews typically lasted about 90 minutes. The cases were reviewed by the project teams for accuracy and tone. With the exception of Hamilton4 all were approved by the projects as being representative of their experiences. The results of those interviews are presented in the following case studies. 4 Hamilton’s comments or objections are noted in the case text. Invenire4 Ltd., Ottawa, Ontario 2 COPSC Cases Chatham-Kent 1. CHATHAM-KENT PROJECT TITLE: CONNECT CHATHAM-KENT URL: http://www.chatham-kent.ca Launch Date: October 2002 Completion Date: February 29, 2004 PART A -- THE LOGIC MODEL COMMUNITY PROFILE The aim of the Connect Chatham-Kent project was to develop a single window access point for municipal and community services and information in Chatham-Kent. Services were to include online recreation program registration and payment, facilities booking information, a community calendar, interactive mapping, a business and service directory, a portal security system, and an online scheduling system for hospitals and local doctors. CK wanted to create a different image of itself other than a small agricultural community struggling to stay afloat The key to the success of this project was getting the basic infrastructure piece in place first. There was little in the way of high-speed Internet access outside the urban core, the municipal website was hosted externally with a private ISP, there were no existing transactional services nor was there a secure environment to conduct transactions. Although invitations to participate were extended to many local organizations, only two stakeholders – the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance -- were willing to commit time and resources to the portal’s development, largely due to the original application being accepted for funding, then application deliverables having to change. The Connect Ontario program has gone a long way in changing its image. By the time of this report, Chatham-Kent had received a total of eight prestigious national and international awards for the quality of its portal, its electronic services for both citizens and businesses, and for its use of GIS. “Initially we had a five-year plan to roll out our e- services strategy. With the Connect Ontario program we’ve done what we planned to do and more within 2 years.” Geo-spatial: The project covers the Municipality of Chatham which is compromised of 2,400 sq. km. -- 60% of which is rural. It has population of 107,709 yielding a population density of 43.6 per sq. km. In 1998, 36 independent Municipalities, public utility commissions and police services amalgamated to form what is now the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. Invenire4 Ltd., Ottawa, Ontario 3 COPSC Cases Chatham-Kent Demographics (2001 census unless otherwise stated) Project area coverage (sq km) 2,470.76 Employment All Industry sectors (2001) 54,980 Manufacturing & Construction 15,840 Population 107,709 -1.80% Other services 9,165 Wholesale & Retail 8,410 Population density 43.6 Health & education 7,850 Business services (admin, support, 6,245 Regional GDP ?? Agriculture, forestry, mining & other 5,520 Finance & Real estate 1,965 Regional GDP per Capita ?? Internet Access Home Demography Business Median Age 38.5 School Average household size Overall % Youth (< 25) 33.3 Type (dial-up, wireless, cable, DSL) Rural broadb % students (5-14 + fulltime 15+) 22.1 # public internet access sites % Seniors (65+) 15.1 % visible minorities 3.8 Eco-Dev % Aboriginal 2 Local Venture
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