District commits to paperless plan

The British Columbia community of Maple Ridge recently committed to a more than half-a-million-dollar effort to streamline its processes by eliminating paper records, according to the Maple Ridge News.

Although the district municipality's council had been planning to go paperless since the turn of the last millennium, it took 13 years for conditions to be optimal enough for councilors to turn words into action. Finance general manager Paul Gill noted that the costs associated with the computers and software necessary to support document imaging and the like are now in a realistic enough place for the long-anticipated conversion to finally be undertaken.

"The reality is, we have to do this," Councilor Judy Dueck said at a recent council workshop, as quoted by the news source.

Dueck's colleague, Councilor Corisa Bell, also chimed in, characterizing the district as a "technological dinosaur" in comparison to other locales that have already shed paper-based processes in the name of progress.

Corporate support director John Bastaja pointed to the time savings that the district will be able to realize by engaging in business process automation, specifically with regard to fulfilling freedom of information requests.

The council will likely also enjoy cost savings as a result of cutting out printing costs, not to mention becoming more environmentally friendly.

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