IMPORTANT NOTICE TO OUR CLIENTS

For the past several months, the Publishing and Depository Services directorate of Communication Canada has been streamlining its operations and developing a new order processing, customer service and inventory management system to better serve our various audiences. In addition, following a public Request for Proposal process, we have signed a long-term contract with a new supplier for the provision of warehousing and distribution services and will be moving our physical inventory to a new location by the end of this month.

All of these activities will significantly hamper our ability to provide our normal level of service for a period of approximately 15 working days between March 17 and April 6, 2004. Subscription items that are released during this timeframe will be distributed, and our standing order service will be maintained, but both may be subject to processing delays.

In order to minimize the effects of our transition activities on your operations, we are recommending that you submit your new orders/requests either before March 17th or after April 6, the date on which we expect to be fully operational once again. We will be holding all orders, claims and order adjustments received between March 17th and April 6th, and will begin to process them as soon as we are in a position to do so.

The Weekly Checklist of Canadian Government Publications will continue publication in both print and electronic formats. Depository clients may continue to place orders for “checkbox” items, but orders will not be processed and publications will not be shipped until full distribution service is restored.

You can call our customer service officers at 1-800-635-7943 (in the National Capital Region (613) 941-5995) from Monday to Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to obtain information about our current status, or if you have to place an urgent order.

On a related matter, we are pleased to inform you that an Order in Council was signed on February 16, 2004, that allows for the transfer of Canadian Government Publishing, the Depository Services Program and the Canada Gazette, along with other activities, to the Department of Public Works and Government Services, effective April 1, 2004. We will be part of a newly-created branch called Government Information Services, and look forward to continuing to serve you as we did while part of Communication Canada.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we transition to new processing methods as well as a new reporting authority. We really appreciate your support and truly regret any inconvenience that this may cause you.