Why does the GoC not invest in video-conferencing facilities?

[White_Unifier]

Given the money that Federal departments spend on travel, why does the Government of Canada not establish a videoconferencing room in each major city that any Federal department could rent out for meetings and such?

I don't deny that a civil servant must sometimes physically travel to one location or another, but I'm sure that in many cases in which they buy flights, hotel, etc., they could have just arranged videoconferencing.

Not only that, but the Feds could even rent the room out to the private sector too when not in use. Or if such a room already exists for rent in the private sector, then the GoC could rent that by the hour too.

This would be an example of a wise investment for the GoC.

Seriously, has the GoC never heard of Skype?

 

[Vbeacher]

Given the money that Federal departments spend on travel, why does the Government of Canada not establish a videoconferencing room in each major city that any Federal department could rent out for meetings and such?

The federal government HAS video conferencing facilities in almost all large buildings. I know because I used to help set up the board room at a CRA building for conferences. It wasn't the only one in the building, either. They do video conferences all the time. But there is still a need to travel, especially since successive governments have spread departments and agencies all across the country, largely for political (vote buying) purposes. If you're going to train staff, lots of staff, say, you need to be face to face. You can't be on a video conference all day for days. If you're going to be looking over their files and examining their methodology you need to be there. IF you're going to watch them at work, you need to be there.

 

[petros]

why does the Government of Canada not establish a videoconferencing room in each major city that any Federal department could rent out for meetings and such?

Ask interac.

 

[tay]

Given the money that Federal departments spend on travel, why does the Government of Canada not establish a videoconferencing room in each major city that any Federal department could rent out for meetings and such?

I
This would be an example of a wise investment for the GoC.

Seriously, has the GoC never heard of Skype?

Skype is one of the easiest to hack and is plagued with problems.

All the others can be hacked easily as well so videoconferencing for anything other than a fluff story will likely never happen. That's why Corporatists still meet in person....

Skype down? Current status and problems | Canadian Outages

 

[taxslave]

Given the money that Federal departments spend on travel, why does the Government of Canada not establish a videoconferencing room in each major city that any Federal department could rent out for meetings and such?

I don't deny that a civil servant must sometimes physically travel to one location or another, but I'm sure that in many cases in which they buy flights, hotel, etc., they could have just arranged videoconferencing.

Not only that, but the Feds could even rent the room out to the private sector too when not in use. Or if such a room already exists for rent in the private sector, then the GoC could rent that by the hour too.

This would be an example of a wise investment for the GoC.

Seriously, has the GoC never heard of Skype?

And take away one of their perks??