Ottawa Creates Agency to Streamline IT Operations

Considering that more than 100 different e-mail services are in use by various departments, yeah, we're getting behind this one.

As part of the federal government's attempt to trim spending by five per cent, they've decided to create a brand-spankin' new agency that will look for ways to save money in the government's use of information technology. We suppose that's proof of the saying that you've got to spend money to make money, but upon learning that there are more than 100 different e-mail clients in use by various federal departments and agencies, we're all in favour of a little streamlining. Getting the dozens upon dozens of agencies across the country to use the same technology is indeed well overdue, even if it will mean thousands of headaches for public servants having to transfer all of their address book contacts to a new client. We recommend that the government look at these newfangled “free” online email services, such as this little startup known as Google.