TechGov Forum: Is blockchain technology an opportunity or a threat to government agencies?
Blockchain. There’s probably no other technology trend in recent years that has sparked so much excitement and ambivalence in the business and public sectors as this peer-to-peer digital ledger technology. On one hand, banks, insurance companies, and even food suppliers are losing no time to investigate how blockchain can be incorporated into their operations. Secure...
The three questions you should ask yourself to avoid cost estimation risks
Risk is always present in any undertaking, no matter the size or duration of the project. Risk can jack up program costs, foul up schedules and draw out projects beyond their stated deadlines, and even ultimately derail a program....
Terrorism in Canada: the report
Terrorism operates with deadly regularity. In June 2016, a gunman who may have been inspired by extremist ideals, killed 49 and injured 53 in an Orlando night club. The same month, suicide bombers targeted Istanbul’s international airport and killed 45. In July, 85 were killed in Nice by an attacker in a truck. Now, the...
Canadian healthcare, financial industries top victims of ransomware: Report
Canadian healthcare organizations and businesses in the financial industry are the leading victims or ransomware attacks, according to a recent survey. A new report released by security software firm Malwarebytes found that more than a third of the survey respondents have been hit by such attacks and at least 75 per cent of the victims paid...
Do Canadian CEOs have a false sense of security?
There’s a fine line between confidence and naivety – a line that Canadian CEOs might be overstepping. The 2016 Canadian CEO Outlook from KPMG has polled Canadian CEOs, revealing a startling disconnect between a company’s outlook and its reality. Customer loyalty continues to be an important issue for CEOs, with 98 per cent acknowledging it as their...
A possible counter to Canadian risk aversion
A U.S. report by Deloitte looks at how federal agencies can build what it calls a “risk appetite framework” based on their risk tolerance. Some of its ideas should be of interest here where risk aversion is an endemic disease....
The business case for resilience
When it comes to catastrophic manmade or weather-related events, it might be time to retire the old expressions “once in a lifetime” and “one in one hundred years.”...
Prevention-focused people and risk aversion
If there’s one thing we talk about all the time in government, it’s risk. And while we often bemoan the timidity of the public sector, and talk about creating a culture of risk in government, what we really want to know is: what are its limits and how can I “manage” it?...
Policy dashboard: Foresight, intelligence and business analytics
Wayne Gretzky used to say, “I skate to where the puck is going to be.” This philosophy applies equally to government programs and policies which can only succeed if they reflect and understand where the players and environment are going to be....
For safety’s sake: An Act worth celebrating
On October 1, 1979 the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act came into force. Thirty years later we celebrate what turned out to be a highly successful piece of legislation...
