Ministry of Government Services (Ontario)

The Ministry of Government Services is responsible for the delivery and management of government operations. Its goal is to provide cost-effective services to all residents and businesses and to the Ontario Public Service. It replaced the former Management Board Secretariat and the former Ministry of Consumer and Business Services in 2005. Between November 2007 and July 2008, the organization's name was the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.

In 2005 the ministry was created from the Management Board Secretariat and the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services. The latter ministry was also known as the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations. C&CR was responsible for government relations with citizens and businesses. These included the provision of birth, death and marriage certificates, land registry, government publications, fraud investigations and customer service complaints (Registrar General of Ontario).

When the ministry was created, Premier Dalton McGuinty described it as the "chief operating officer of government." The position combined responsibility for consumer protection, business regulation, management of the civil service, labour negotiations and the central plumbing of government: IT, procurement, and shared services.

One of the main projects of the Ministry was the creation of ServiceOntario. When it was completed in 2011, ServiceOntario was the one stop shop for all government retail operations. Any and all routine transactions between government and the public are performed through ServiceOntario offices, websites, call centres or kiosks.

Alongside ServiceOntario, MGS offers access to its public records through the three of its licensed service providers, one of each is ESC Corporate Services.

The current minister is Marie-France Lalonde.

MGS oversees the following agencies:

...
Wikipedia