July 10, 1996
(Executive Council)

Government signs provincial agreement with Unisys to implement Atlantic Canada On-Line

Paul Dicks, Minister responsible for Finance and Treasury Board, and Allan Shatford, General Manager, Atlantic Region, Unisys Canada Inc., yesterday signed a provincial agreement which will see Newfoundland and Labrador become part of a public-private partnership initiative involving Atlantic provinces. The partnership will result in the set up and running of Atlantic Canada On-Line by a consortium led by Unisys Canada Inc.

Atlantic Canada On-Line (ACOL) will be an innovative commercial information service, designed to make government information more easily accessible to business and consumer audiences who use it on a regular basis. For example, information held by deeds and registries could be made available by the ACOL service and marketed to law firms, who could easily access the information from their office computer terminal.

"Unisys is proud to be a member of this public-private partnership. It speaks highly for what can be accomplished with cooperation between the public and private sector and with the cooperation of Newfoundland and all Atlantic provinces," said Mr. Shatford. "We are committed to this project and will be investing over $10 million over the next five years to turn the government information and data into a commercially marketable service."

"This initiative will allow Newfoundland and Labrador professionals and business people to take advantage of leading technologies to do their business more effectively, to access new business opportunities throughout the Atlantic region and to provide improved services to their clients," said Mr. Dicks. "Government looks forward to working with Unisys Canada on this project which will improve the public's ability to do business with government."

The economic implications from this project are tremendous. Revenue will be generated by fees paid for access to databases. A percentage of fees, dependent on contracts agreed upon by each participating government department, will be shared by the government and Unisys. The province will retain controlling ownership of the data, and the right to exercise veto power over its use and marketing. All statutes and regulations concerning privacy and confidentiality of information will apply. In addition, government investment will be limited to supplying its publicly available information to Unisys and its partners.

Unisys' major partners in this venture are Ameritech, recognized specialists in electronic access to government records, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois; the CCL Group of companies, including CorporaTel, Corporate Communications Limited and Corporate Research Associates; and Software Kinetics, an ISO 9001 certified software engineering company.

• Contact:

  Karen McCarthy
  Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
  (709) 729-0110

  Beth Keays
  Corporate Communications Limited
  (902) 493-3108

NOTE TO EDITORS: A photograph to accompany this release is being forwarded by mail.