In a blog post late last year we noted that faxes were Out, at least so far as service under the Rules of Civil Procedure are concerned. The only thing left (according the the Rules) was the possibility that Confirmation Forms could be sent to court offices by fax because that hadn’t been specifically removed from the Rules. I opined three months ago: “that fax vestigial option will probably stay that way until fax machines become rare oddities in law offices and there is no point to retaining the technology in courthouses”.

Nope. The provincial government is taking the initiative on this now, albeit with a phase-out period. Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy told CBC News that he’s directing the province’s public service to phase out its 1,500 traditional telephone fax lines by the end of the year. He rather drolly noted that “nothing says The Flintstones like a fax machine.”

It’s interesting that there’s no mention of courts or the justice system, but extensive discussion of the health care sector, where it is (to my surprise) very common. I am so used to the legal sector being behind the technical curve of other professions that I was surprised to see that somebody was behind us in something.