E-government services are rapidly becoming a permanent part of the governing process the world over. These services involve the use of the latest information and communication technologies to facilitate and enhance access to government information and services. E-government represents an entirely new mode of service delivery that promises some of the most important advances in the area of government accessibility since the advent of the modern welfare state. These resources have a number of unexplored social service applications that are examined in this study. E-government principles and practices are reviewed at the local and international levels, with particular attention paid to the Government of Canada's e-government initiative, known as Government On-Line (GOL). Seven specific e-government applications that can benefit social workers and clients are identified and discussed. The results of eight interviews with directors of local agencies regarding the future of e-government in social services are reported and examined. Specific recommendations and directions for future research are provided.

In the twentieth century, a dynamic expansion of its activities and powers has made government a major supplier of information on an enormous range of topics of concern to citizens. Unfortunately, the information which it provides is not always completely reliable: sometimes it is inaccurate, and government is powerless to protect the citizen from the consequences; at others, it proves misleading because government chooses later to disown it. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the legal remedies available to citizens misled by government information. The analysis has two principal areas of investigation. First, consideration is given to the means whereby the citizen may be able to hold government bound by information which it has provided to him. Separate treatment is given to the situations in which the misleading information deprives the citizen of a benefit or inflicts on him a loss, and in which it subjects him to the risk of criminal liability. Secondly, consideration is given to the possibility of holding government responsible in damages for the consequences of its information being misleading. Of central importance in this wide-ranging analysis is the issue of the proper role of the courts. This stems from the fact that complaints about misleading government information frequently involve challenges to government decisions. Thus the majority of attempts by citizens to hold government bound by its information are generated by the making by government itself of a decision inconsistent with that information. Again, attempts to hold government responsible in damages for the consequences of providing misleading information commonly involve an allegation that a particular government decision relating to the provision of that information was negligent. It is emphasized throughout this thesis that the courts should refuse assistance to a citizen whose complaint of misleading government information is directed essentially towards a government decision, where that decision involves a determination of the priority of competing interests and values represented in society. The provision of a remedy in such a case would enable the courts effectively to review the choices embodied in value-laden government decisions, and as such would facilitate an unwarranted extension of their constitutional role. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

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