Pursuant to CRTC Decisions CRTC and CRTC : Notice of Completion of 211 Service throughout the Province of Ontario

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1 Pursuant to CRTC Decisions CRTC and CRTC : Notice of Completion of 211 Service throughout the Province of Ontario Date: January 11 th, 2010 Organization: Ontario 211 Services Corporation Bill Morris, Executive Director 543 Richmond Street, Suite # 220 Toronto ON M5V 1Y6 T: bmorris@211ontario.ca Introduction In 2001 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), in response to an application lead by United Way of Canada Centraide Canada, assigned the three-digit dialing code for public access to community information and referral services throughout Canada. Ontario 211 Services Corporation (O211SC), a non-profit organization, was incorporated in 2007 with a mission to develop, sustain and improve an integrated Ontario 211 system. Governed by a volunteer board drawn from across the province, O211SC is the provincial agency responsible for administering on-going provincial funding contributions, licensing sites, approvals for switching, branding, and the administration of the network of 211 providers while moving towards province-wide delivery by The vision of 211 in Ontario is to become the source for community information and resources in Ontario. The success of 211 has required significant collaboration between United Ways Centraides, the information and referral sector, governments and other community partners. The Province of Ontario committed to 211 s expansion in the Budget and more recently a further commitment of annualized funding will provide resources post

2 Up until now, all 211 service launches in Ontario have been for local service. There are currently eight 211 service delivery hubs throughout Ontario, including Ottawa, Simcoe County, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Peel Region, Halton Region, Niagara and Windsor. In keeping with the CRTC Decision , 211 proponents have treated municipalities as the appropriate level of government to endorse providers, and have sought resolutions from municipal Councils as the means of demonstrating support to TSPs for the purpose of requesting switching. In 2008, following the provincial government s decision to support implementation of 211 throughout Ontario, the Province of Ontario became the appropriate level of government as per the attached letter from the Deputy-Minister of Community and Social Services. Service Description 211 is a two channel information system which consists of a 3-digit telephone helpline; and 211ontario.ca internet service. Both provide support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The 211 delivery system is made up of eight service providers (five non-profits and three municipalities, partnering with more than 52 local data partners) and could not exist without the partnership between the hubs and O211SC. Underlying the provision of information and referral services are two core business processes: call centre operations and data base management. 211 s core services include: information and referral, quality control and follow up, Internet service, community crisis response and data provision. an oracle database website is fully bilingual, and supported by a provincial database of 56,000 programs and services that has become an indispensable resource for many service professionals and frontline workers. Each 211 service provider is responsible for handling all telephone calls in their region, while most of the after hours provision is provided by one call centre, more importantly for collecting information about services and agencies in their area, so that the database remains current and accurate. Our focus is on building capacity and consistent practices in service delivery. Ongoing quality assurance programs monitor performance and drive service excellence. As Ontario 211 increases in scale to meet our goal for providing 75% of Ontarians with access to 211 phone and internet service,we continue to develop and improve the efficiencies of the system. 2

3 Proposed 211 Service Area 211, operated by Ontario 211 Services Corporation covers the Province of Ontario geographic area. The map for the area, which indicates 211 Service Hubs coverage, is shown below: 3

4 Call Routing Arrangements In Ontario calls are routed through 8 service providers: Service Provider Call Centre Central Ontario Region FindHelp Information Services 543 Richmond St West Ste 125, Toronto, ON M5V 1Y6 Central East Region Communication Connections Box 683, 275 First Street Collingwood, ON L9Y 4E8 Central South Region Information Niagara Garden City Tower 301 St Paul St. Box 1, St Catharines, ON L2R 3M8 Central West Region Halton Region 1151 Bronte Road, Oakville, ON L6M 3L1 Eastern Region Information Ottawa 11 Rosemount Ave, Ste 408 Ottawa, ON, K1Y 4R8 Northern Region Lakehead Social Planning Council 125 Syndicate Avenue South, Unit 17, Victoriaville Centre Thunder Bay, ON P7E 6H8 Peel/Dufferin Region Region of Peel Suite B, 10 Peel Centre Dr 4th Floor, Brampton, ON L6T 4B9 South West Region 211 Windsor/Essex: 400 City Hall Square East, Suite 410, Windsor, ON N9A 7K6 Phone numbers 10 digit digit Toll free digit Toll free digit Toll free digit digit digit Toll Free digit TTY Toll Free

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6 Calling Volume Estimates REGION 2009 CALL VOLUMES ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL CALL VOLUMES CENTRAL REGION 2,503,281 72,698 CENTRAL EAST REGION 942,278 8,729 CENTRAL SOUTH REGION 427,421 30,618 CENTRAL WEST REGION 439,256 33,927 EASTERN REGION 812,129 9,220 NORTHERN REGION 149,063 10,172 PEEL/DUFFERIN REGION 1,159,405 2,722 SOUTH WEST REGION 393,402 36,451 Ontario 211 Services Corporation Expectations of Telecommunications Service Providers TSPs will permit callers in each of your networks to dial 211. These calls will route to the appropriate service provider using standard local and long distance routing and rating methodologies. TSPs will work with the appropriate cellular provider in each of your areas to ensure that the calls are routed correctly. TSPs will work with Ontario211 to ensure that the 211 Launch/Rollout schedule is adhered to. 6

7 The switching rollout of the service will begin on April 1 st, 2010 to coincide with the Proposed 211 Service Date in each community. Proposed Timeline Step 1: Teleconference for TSPs across Ontario Feb 1st h, 2010 Step 2: Rollout of switching begins - March 1 st, 2010 Step 3: Rollout of switching ends June 14 th, 2010 Step 4: 211 is available across Ontario Launch / Rollout Schedule Region/ County/ Municipality 09-Dec PROVINCE Major urban centre Date of original 211 launch Rollout Switching Date Proposed 211 Service Date Northern Region Kenora 12-Apr-10 1-Aug-10 Rainy River 12-Apr-10 1-Oct-10 Thunder Bay 01-Jul-09 N/A Cochrane 12-Apr-10 1-Jun-11 Algoma Sault Ste. Marie 01-Sept Apr-10 1-Oct-10 Sudbury 12-Apr-10 1-Aug-11 Timiskaming Manitoulin Nipissing North Bay Eastern Region Renfrew County City of Ottawa 01-Sept-08 N/A Prescott and Russell 14-Jun-10 Frontenac Kingston 14-Jun-10 1-Sept-10 Lanark 14-Jun-10 Stormont, Dundas & 14-Jun-10 Glengarry Lennox & Addington 14-Jun-10 1-Sept-10 Hastings Bancroft, Tweed 14-Jun-10 1-Nov-10 Leeds & Grenville Brockville 14-Jun-10 Prince Edward 14-Jun-10 1-Nov-10 7

8 Central Eastern Region Bruce 02-Jul-09 N/A Grey 02-Jul-09 N/A Simcoe 28-Jun-09 N/A Kawartha Lakes 09-Sep-09 N/A Peterborough 09-Jun-09 N/A Parry Sound Muskoka 01-Jul-09 N/A Northumberland 02-Jul-09 N/A Haliburton 01-Sept-09 N\A Huron Perth 1-Sept-10 1-Sept-10 Central Region City of Toronto 25-Jun-09 N/A York Region 01-Mar-10 1-Apr-10 Durham Region 01-Mar-10 1-Sep-10 Dufferin-Peel Region R.M. of Peel 01-Jul-09 N/A Dufferin Shelbourne 15-Mar-10 1-Jun-10 Central West Region Halton R.M. 30-Jun-09 N/A Waterloo R.M. 10-May-10 1-Sep-10 Wellington County 10-May-10 1-Dec-10 Central South Region City of Hamilton 24-May Sep-09 Niagara Region 28-Jun-09 N/A Brant 24-May Aug-11 8

9 Haldimand-Norfolk 24-May-10 1-Dec-10 South West Region Windsor-Essex 30-Jun-09 N/A Oxford 26-Apr-10 1-Jul-10 Elgin Middlesex (London) 26-Apr-10 Lambton (Sarnia) 26-Apr-10 1-Mar-11 Chatham-Kent 26-Apr-10 1-Sep-10 We look forward to further discussing the details of this request with you. Please RSVP your attendance at our Conference call on February 1st at 10am to the Data Initiatives Manager (Pam Casey) If you have any questions please feel free to contact either Bill Morris at #221 / bmorris@211ontario.ca or Pam Casey #223 / pcasey@211ontario.ca. Thank you 9

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