When looking for innovative information technology, the last place most people would think to look is a small town in northern British Columbia.

But in fact, Fort St. John, a fast-growing city of 17,500 in the B.C. Peace River Region, is about to get a highly advanced municipal Web site.

"We were very interested in electronic service delivery to improve our service level to customers," says city manager John Locher. We're not a rich municipality, we have very low staffing levels, so we need to find efficiencies in every little corner we can find them."

With its limited budget, Fort St. John couldn't afford the development costs for a complex e-commerce Web site. So the city's administrators came up with the idea of a subscription system: find a company that would develop and run the site, so the city could pay a monthly fee instead of cash up front. They turned to TELUS.

saving money and improving service

TELUS quickly came to the table with an integrated solution: everything from a Web portal for city staff, to high-security data storage. The centrepiece of the deal, though, was the virtual city hall: TELUS BookIt software for booking and paying for city facilities, TELUS PayIt® software for paying parking tickets and other municipal fees, and a custom-designed user interface. All for one affordable monthly fee.

Now, the city's ratepayers and clients have an alternative to visiting City Hall in person. From applying for a building permit to purchasing a cemetery plot, everything is available 24 hours a day on-line.

support and innovation



For Fort St. John there are two significant benefits to the subscription arrangement:

1. TELUS handled all the updates and modifications for them, so the city doesn't have to hire IT staff.



2. There is also the unique fee structure: as more municipalities sign up, the monthly fee goes down, making this cost-effective solution even cheaper.

Locher believes it's our culture of innovation that allowed this project to happen.