Newsletter of the Canadian Bar Association (BC Branch)
The Sale of BC Online... A quiet sale amidst concerns for privacy, confidentiality, access and cost
October 1997 Vol. 9 • No. 5
INSIDE President's Message
3
Section Talk
5
Executive Director's Column
9
Tommy Tao:: Lawyer and Activist
10
Guest Column: Brian Tkachuk
12
Benevolent Fund
13
Lawyers for Literacy
14
Letters to the Editor
16
Practice Talk
17
Legislative Update
19
The Changing Face of Legal Practice
27
September Branch News
32
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t's no surprise that very few people know much about the p roposed sale of BC Online. The media have barely noticed, the general public is completely unaware, and only a very few interested observers -both within and outside the legal profession- know what might happen to BC Online in the hands of a potential buyer.
fund s for the sale by March 22, 1998. Clearly, the sale of BC Online is seen as a viable way to inject needed dollars into the government' s General Revenues and thus provide for a healthier bottom line within this fiscal year.
There are important ramifications to this sale, both for lawyers and for the public we serve. Particular issues of concern include privacy and confidentiality, accessibility of information, and the The buyer group potential for increased or could use their new inequitable costs. In addition, some of the bidding groups information capab i Iity include companies which to the benefit of title could use their new insurance or other information capability to the competitive services benefit of title insurance or other competitive services.
What is BC Online? It is the electronic "gate-way" service which provides access to 11 major government databases such as Land Titles, Corporate Records and the BC Assessment Authority. It is an information distributor system which services more than 17,000 users and has projected net revenues of around $20 million this year alone. Law firms comprise approximately 20% of all BC Online accounts and lawyer-related actitivies account for 70% of all transactions. Other major user groups include search companies, financial institutions, real estate agents and auto dealers.
On August 7, 1997 a Request for Proposal (RFP) document was released, offering a seven-year renewable license to operate BC Online. Interested buyers submitted their bids by September 30, 1997. A key requirement of the RFP is that the winning bidder must submit the
The RFP states clearly that the purchaser will be allowed to create "value added services". This opens up a number of new possibilities in providing data, such as buying or adding new data to the existing data collection; generating new kinds of information from combined data sources (e.g. matching government data with third party credit, insurance, telephone or other data); providing new forms and presentation of data (e.g. combining title search data with document production, for use by other companies); providing new views of data (e.g. all the mortgages held by a particular bank; all Continued over