New Executive Holds First Meeting

MISA/ASIM Canada now has a permanently established Executive, which has held its first meeting and made its first appearance at a national public-sector event.

The Executive gathered for the first time at Saint-Sauveur, Quebec, on May 13, the day before the beginning of the 10th annual Lac Carling Congress (http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/ContentPage.aspx?name=laccarling2005).

They made the transition from the former Interim Executive, established in 2004, to the permanently constituted Executive, which will govern the association according to its By-laws and Operations Manual.

The five member organizations of MISA/ASIM Canada are each represented by two appointees to the Executive. The two representatives combine to cast one vote for each member organization for decision-making purposes.

The first task of the Executive was to select four officers. They are as follows:

President: Kevin Peacock
Vice-President: Daniel Malo
Secretary: Roy Wiseman
Treasurer: Garry Bezruki

The Executive members signed two poster-sized documents, one each in English and French, committing the members to the mission and objectives of MISA/ASIM Canada. Those posters were displayed the next day at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opening of the Lac Carling Congress, announcing the inauguration of the Executive.

The 10 members of the Executive, listed by their member organizations, are:

MISA Atlantic

Daya Pillay, manager, e-commerce & Web services, Halifax Regional Municipality
Bill Todd, information technology manager, City of Saint John

MISA BC

David Hennigan, director of information technology, Capital Regional District
Gerry Matte, information technology manager, Municipality of Saanich

MISA Ontario

Garry Bezruki, director of information technology, City of Waterloo
Roy Wiseman, CIO/director information and technology services, Region of Peel

MISA Prairie

Kevin Peacock, branch manager, Corporate Information Services, City of Saskatoon
Mark Humphries, supervisor, information systems, Parkland County, Alberta

Réseau de l’Informatique Municipale du Québec (RIMQ)

Gaston Huot, directeur des ressources informationnelles, Villes de Boucherville, Brossard, Saint-Bruno et Saint-Lambert
Daniel Malo, direction des technologies de l’information, Ville de Montreal

President Kevin Peacock told the Lac Carling Congress that MISA/ASIM Canada will be undertaking two major projects during 2006: updating of the Municipal Reference Model, a tool to standardize service descriptions and enable service-delivery collaborations among jurisdictions, and an exploration of ways to align online identity management, authentication and authorization methods for municipalities.

Roy Wiseman, as municipal co-chair of the Lac Carling Congress, told delegates in his opening remarks, “I think that I can speak on behalf of the new MISA/ASIM Canada Executive in committing that municipalities across the country will work with their counterparts in other governments to move (the e-Government) agenda forward.

“We will participate on committees, even more strongly than we have done in the past. We will participate in pilot projects, as we have done for BizPAL, the Seniors Portal or e-Contact.

“And we will promote the work of this forum among our members, so that the base of support continues to broaden every year.”