Question Period Note: DIGITAL IDENTITY

How is the Government of Canada going to enhance and secure digital identity and identity management practices to modernize service delivery and improve client experience?

• Canadians access digital services across all aspects of their life. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to provide Canadians with immediate access to secure government services online.

• Improving access to digital services to Canadians is a key priority of the Government of Canada so that Canadians can easily and securely identify themselves when they access federal services.

• The Government of Canada is working towards modernizing and streamlining the way clients confirm their identity online to provide an enhanced digital service experience.

• We are collaborating with our partners in the provinces and territories to allow Canadians to use their provincial or territorial trusted digital identities to access federal services.

The responsibility for identity in Canada is shared between the provincial Vital Statistics Organizations who establish foundational identity (e.g., birth certificate) to those born in the provinces; and Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada is responsible for those born outside of the country (e.g., immigration document). As the idea of a trusted digital identity stems from these foundational identities, federal, provincial, and territorial collaboration is essential.

The Government of Canada is working on two (2) digital identity initiatives that aim to streamline and simplify the current approach to registration and authentication (R&A) in order to support digital service delivery, and will provide clients with easy and secure access to government benefits and services.

The current Enterprise Cyber-Authentication Solution (ECAS) system to register and authenticate identity would require significant investments to meet the medium and long-term capacity and capability requirements for service transformation and online service delivery. The proposed Identity Services and Access Management System (iSAMS) will replace ECAS and provide a single secure access point to the departmental programs and services. iSAMS will also provide increased capacity to onboard additional programs and add new capabilities to respond to emerging business requirements.

The Government of Canada has recently implemented a private sector solution that allows a My Service Canada Account (MSCA) client to rapidly register for the online service, without the need of waiting up to 10 days for an access code to arrive in the mail.

The Government of Canada is accepting two provincially issued digital identities:

• Residents of British Columbia (BC) and Alberta can securely access their My Service Canada Account (MSCA) by using their provincial trusted digital identity (TDI). The My Alberta Digital Identity (MADI) Pilot, which launched in summer 2019, was the first time a TDI issued by a province was accepted by the Government of Canada in accordance with the Pan Canadian Trust Framework. The pilot streamlined the registration process for Albertans who had a verified MADI and was recently transitioned into a long-term Trusted Digital Identity Agreement in August 2021. The BC Trusted Digital Identity project was launched in 2020.

• Building on the success of the My Alberta Digital ID (MADI) and the BC Digital Identity projects, the government of Canada continues to support the adoption of TDIs through collaborative engagement with provinces and territories.
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These digital identity initiatives are key enablers for digital service delivery and enhance client experience while maintaining the integrity of programs. They also support the GC digital service strategies and core departmental service transformation priorities (i.e., Benefits Delivery Modernization initiative).

The Clerks and Cabinet Secretaries, federal, as well as provincial and territorial Deputy Ministers have indicated that digital identity is a top priority.

Public opinion research from 2019 (e.g., Employment Insurance Quality Review and Citizen First) have indicated that seamless and secure digital service delivery is important to Canadians who want to access services in a digital environment from the comfort of their homes. Trusted digital identity is the building block to meeting those expectations.

According to a survey conducted in 2020 by the Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada, 75% of Canadians believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the importance of having secure, reliable and privacy-friendly digital identification to help Canadians conduct secure online transactions.

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