3-1-1 COUNCIL LIAISON COMMITTEE

MINUTES 3-1-1CLC-2009-1

The 3-1-1 Council Liaison Committee met on Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 8:30 a.m. in the 5 th Floor Boardroom, Regional Administrative Headquarters , 10 Peel Centre Drive, Suite A, Brampton.

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* See text for arrivals
¨See text for departures

H. West, Committee Clerk, Presided.

1. ELECTON OF CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR

RECOMMENDATION 3-1-1CLC-1-2009:

That Councillor Miles be appointed Chair of the 3-1-1 Council Liaison Committee.

RECOMMENDATION 3-1-1CLC-2-2009:

That Councillor Paterak, be appointed Vice-Chair of the 3-1-1 Council Liaison Committee.

2. DECLARATIONS OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST - Nil

3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

RECOMMENDATION 3-1-1CLC-3-2009:

That the agenda for the February 5, 2009 3-1-1 Council Liaison Committee meeting be approved.

4. DELEGATIONS/PRESENTATIONS

a) Roy Wiseman, Chief Information Officer, Presenting the 3-1-1 Model Options

Received

See also Communications Items - 6a and 6b

Roy Wiseman, Chief Information Officer, advised that the three area municipalities have been working on a strategy for their call centres and the proposed 3-1-1 program. Staff at the Region and area municipalities have discussed various options and are proposing a recommendation which will be presented to each Council for implementation.

Roy Wiseman introduced Shawn Slack, Director of Customer Service, City of Mississauga and Rob Meikle, Acting C.I.O., City of Brampton, who provided overviews of the current call centres at the area municipal offices and consolidation of the 3-1-1 program.

Shawn Slack, stated that the City of Mississauga Council approved a three year Call Centre Consolidation Plan and Customer Service strategy on March 29, 2006. Effective 1 st quarter of 2009, staff will be officially reporting on the activity of the call centre to Council. The anticipated budget to implement the Call Centre Consolidation initiative is 3.4 million dollars, which was reduced substantially from the original estimate of 5.4 million dollars. Council of the City of Mississauga approved, in principle, the recommended option for 3-1-1 implementation, authorizing that the report be submitted to the Region of Peel. Staff will proceed with negotiations with the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and to negotiate agreements for 3-1-1 enhanced routing with the surrounding municipalities. A soft launch of Mississauga 3-1-1 is proposed as early as May, 2009 followed by a hard launch in the fall of 2009.

Councillor Paterak enquired why the telephone company does not have a program that routes a telephone number with the municipal address, which would alleviate having to execute enhanced routing agreements with surrounding municipalities.

Roy Wiseman responded that the telephone companies do have such a program and that this is exactly what is meant by enhanced routing. However, a CRTC ruling allows the phone company to charge a fee per call for enhanced routing. The alternative is that calls for a given exchange that crosses municipal boundaries will not be split based on address and must all be routed to the selected municipality – which must then transfer manually all calls pertaining to the other municipality served by the telephone exchange.

Rob Meikle, Acting C.I.O., explained the evolution of the City of Brampton Call Centre noting in 2005 an after hour call service was launched which operates 7 days per week, 365 days per year. In 2007, they expanded their model by introducing day time call overflow to assist departments. The 24x7 services provided by the call centre directly enhance Brampton service delivery for citizens. For example, the issuing of burial permits is available anytime to facilitate burial within 24 hours when required. Last year the City of Brampton introduced a customer services strategy which provides an integrated service through various channels such as the web site, telephone calls and members of council.

Some of last year’s Call Centre highlights include:

1) 72 percent of 260,000 calls received 1 st contact resolution

2) ~$610,000 theatre box office tickets were sold since March/08 - 18 percent of total revenue

3) ~$120,000 for municipal parking tickets was received since September/08 - 20 percent of the total revenue

Rob Meikle indicated that a report is proceeding to City of Brampton committee of Council on February 18, 2009, proposing the implementation of 3-1-1.

 Roy Wiseman provided an update of the Town of Caledon regarding its current status of the 3-1-1 program. He noted that Caledon has recently hired a Customer Service Supervisor and made changes to their telephone system which could provide the foundation for eventual implementation of 3-1-1. In January 2009, a report was presented to Council indicating that staff will be developing a customer service strategy. A further report will be presented to Council in fall, 2009 which will include plans for implementing 3-1-1 as part of the customer service strategy.

Karla Hale, Manager, Customer Contact Centre, summarized the current status at the Region of Peel indicating that in 2005 a fully integrated customer contact centre was implemented which provides service to 16 programs and is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. In 2008, 783,591 calls were received with the target of 80 percent of the calls being answered within 20 seconds. In May 2008 the Region launched the 2-1-1 Information and Referral service which takes calls related to Health and Human Services. Development of a fully sophisticated customer relationship management technology is being reviewed to help facilitate services in all of the program areas.

Roy Wiseman advised that Halton Region has implemented 3-1-1 and that the City of Toronto will launch its program in June, 2009. It is anticipated that Peel will technically be ready with a 3-1-1 program by June, 2009. The working group of area municipal staff and the Region of Peel staff have considered a full range of service delivery options based on customer service, complexity/risk and cost. The recommended option is to implement the 3-1-1 at the local level versus the Regional level which will allow each municipality to implement the program when they are ready. The recommendation will be implemented with common standards and approach.

Councillor Miles, Committee Chair enquired about the type of response a caller will receive where the 3-1-1 service is not live. Shawn Slack responded that a recording will indicate that “you have reached a 10 digit number which is not in service”.

Roy Wiseman explained that the model being recommended delivers a 3-1-1 call to the City or Town facility. The caller would receive an immediate greeting followed by a recording instructing the caller to press ‘1’ if the call pertains to a Region of Peel service. If the caller does press ‘1’, the call will be transferred to a live responder at the Region of Peel. If they do not press ‘1’ then the call will go to a live responder will be offered by the City or the Town. A small percentage of calls received at the wrong location will be transferred by an attendant to the appropriate attendant.

Councillor Miles enquired if interpreters will be available for individuals who cannot speak English. Kent Gillespie, Commissioner of Employee and Business Services confirmed that interpreters will be accessible.

Councillor Mahoney enquired how cell phone callers will reach 3-1-1 call centres. Shawn Slack responded that the call will go to the nearest cell tower and be directed to the call centre of the municipality where that tower is located. Where cell phone calls originate very close to municipal borders, this can sometimes result in calls be directed to the wrong municipality.

David Szwarc, Chief Administrative Officer noted that the success of the 3-1-1 program will be measured to see if it results in improving the ease with which the public can get the service and information they need. In its mature state, each caller initiating a service request will receive a “ticket number” which will allow callers and call centre attendants to check on the status of service requests.

Roy Wiseman indicated that the City of Mississauga will have a soft launch in May, 2009. Official marketing and a public launch will be promoted by the City of Mississauga and the Region of Peel in fall, 2009. Councillor Miles highlighted the need to market the 3-1-1 program before fall, 2009, to inform all the residents of the Region of Peel when they will have access to the program. Roy Wiseman responded that from the Region’s perspective a soft launch could be done in all three municipalities in May, 2009, although the decision on specific timing rests primarily with the local municipality.

Kent Gillespie described the three components to move forward with the 3-1-1 program as follows: 1) marketing of 3-1-1 and its relationship to other n-1-1 numbers, 2) the 3-1-1 model and moving forward opportunities for further integration within the area municipalities, and 3) data collection of the program and the coordination and sharing of the data between the Cities, Town and the Region.

Councillor Miles confirmed that the 3-1-1 Council Liaison Committee will meet to monitor progress and provide direction on upcoming issues regarding the implementation of the 3-1-1 program.

 David Szwarc advised that because the Committee had decided to continue to meet on a regular basis, staff in the Clerks Division would draft formal terms of reference for the 3-1-1 Council Liaison Committee that can be considered at a future meeting.

5. REPORTS - Nil

6. COMMUNICATIONS

a) Brenda R. Breault, Commissioner of Corporate Services and Treasurer, City of Mississauga, Report dated January 12, 2009 and Recommendation Regarding the Call Centre Consolidation and 3-1-1 Implementation

Received

See also Delegations/Presentations Items - 4a and 6b

b) Karen Landry, Director of Administration/Town Clerk, Report dated January 20, 2009 and Resolution 031-2009 Regarding 3-1-1 Planning

Received

See also Delegations/Presentations Items - 4a and 6a

 
7. IN CAMERA MATTERS - Nil

8. OTHER BUSINESS - Nil

9 . NEXT MEETING

The date of the next meeting is to be determined.

For further information contact Helena West, Legislative Specialist, (905) 791-7800, extension 4697 or at helena.west@peelregion.ca.

10. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 9:30 a.m.