Fast
Forward
Can municipal regulators learn
to move at the speed of tech?
By Sarah B. Hood
I
s your municipality still doing busi-
ness like it’s 1999? Although the aver-
age resident is living fully in the 21st
century (ready to pay bills, apply for
permits and vote on their mobile de-
vices), the frameworks that govern ev-
eryday municipal life are in many cases
based on systems dating to the Victo-
rian era.
Last May, the Mowat Centre at the
University of Toronto published a
report titled Regulating Disruption:
Governing in an Era of Rapid
Technological Change. Authored by
Sunil Johal and Michael Crawford
Urban, the report analyzes new
challenges confronting Canadian
policy-makers and regulators as they
seek to adapt regulatory frameworks
for the digital age, identifying potential
opportunities for governments and the
people they represent.
“We’ve done a lot of work on the
sharing economy; this is a broader
look at the issues,” says Mowat Centre
director Sunil Johal. “Most government
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Bitcoin are stretching the
processes and policies
boundaries of currency
were designed with the
exchange, while autono-
industrial age in mind,
mous cars are remaking
and now that we’re in the
our highways. In the past,
digital age, governments
regulators could stay
need to be reviewing their
up to date in their fields
structures and the skills
with occasional training
of their employees to be
courses and conferences.
responsive and nimble in
Now, however, “it’s more
this economy.”
Dan
Mathieson
important than ever to
Ride-share service Uber
have rapid real-time train-
and short-term accom-
ing
that
is
frequently
renewed,” Johal
modation matchmaker Airbnb are
says.
This
can
be
accomplished
via
examples of popular — and disrup-
“nanodegrees”
(available
online)
and
tive — new web-based enterprises.
secondments to digital technology
Another is video-streaming service
firms.
Netflix, which, says Johal, “has to date
Johal names Estonia as a leader in
escaped regulation by the Canadian
integrating
data systems to the point
government” in such areas as Canadian
where
it’s
actually
“illegal for govern-
content requirements and even
ment
to
ask
a
citizen
for a single piece
Canadian sales tax: mainly because
of information more than once. People
“governments just don’t know what to
can file taxes in five minutes, because
do about it.”
they can populate data from existing
New technologies are disrupting
sources; it only takes a few minutes to
the status quo in every area of con-
start a company in Estonia. They don’t
temporary life. Virtual currencies like