At the annual Smart Commute Awards last evening, it was clear that the Smart Commute program, established in 2004, is transforming the culture of commuting across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

“Smart Commute is a concept that has clearly captured the interest of some of the most innovative organizations in the GTHA,” says Bruce McCuaig, President and CEO, Metrolinx. “They understand that we can no longer afford to ignore the huge toll that commuter gridlock is taking on our health, our economy and the environment.”

Via METROLINX

I often say, “Work is what you do, not where you are.” I also could say, “Telework is who I am.” I came into government from CSC [Computer Sciences Corp.] where I worked for the CEO on corporate culture. My colleagues were in the U.K., Australia, India and the West Coast. I never met some of them, but we were online all the time. After a while, it is silly to get up, get dressed and drive all the way to Falls Church, Va., to call India. Do it from home. It’s 4:30 a.m. I didn’t know it was called “teleworking.” At CSC, it was just called “working.”

Via FederalTimes.com

PHONE – 416-325-1941

EMAIL – www.premier.gov.on.ca – click on Contact

FAX – ATTENTION: DALTON MCGUINTY AT 416-325-3745

WRITE – DALTON MCGUINTY, PREMIER
LEGISLATIVE BUILDING
QUEEN’S PARK, TORONTO, ON
M7A 1A1

Telework (often referred to as telecommuting ) holds new and largely untapped economic opportunities for Northern Ontario by allowing paid workers to work away from their normal place of work, usually from home.   Since teleworkers need to consume electricity during the day to power their home offices and the technology therein, the smart meter initiative amounts to a tax on what is a very green activity.

Telework offers significant benefits to individual employees, their employers, and their communities, yet the Ontario government has been less proactive in enabling and promoting telework than it has been on promoting the smart meter initiative. An initiative being managed and implemented by those same organizations who have a long track record of waste and mismanagement.

Let your voice be heard by contacting the Premier’s Office, Hydro One, and the Minster of Energy.

Global warming – the gradual increase in the average temperature of air near the Earth’s surface and its ocean water – is projected to continue. But there are ways we can help.

With greening initiatives on the forefront of government officials’ minds, reducing carbon emissions by allowing government employees to telework a few days per week may help mitigate climate change.

Government Technology.

Boosting the ranks of federal employees who telework is a slow, sometimes painful process, despite numerous incentives and legislative edicts lobbed at U.S. agencies over the years.
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Take the situation at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which last month was ordered by a federal arbitration panel to allow its legal instrument examiners to telework on a pilot basis.

Why don’t we do something similar in Ontario and legislate a small percentage of governments jobs as telework jobs for Northern Ontario communities.  Steve

Network World.

The car is still king in Markham and Richmond Hill. But it’s their shared commitment to automobile alternatives that earned a national award this week.

The towns’ co-venture, Smart Commute 404-7, has received the Canadian Transportation Association’s Sustainable Urban Transportation Award.

TheStar.com.