Question Period Note: OPEN GOVERNMENT

What are the Government of Canada’s key accomplishments with respect to Open Government?

• Through our efforts on Open Government, we have the opportunity to support civic participation and safeguard democratic freedoms.

• The Government of Canada continues to raise the bar on openness and transparency, underpinned by the principle that government information ultimately belongs to the people it serves, and should be open by default.
• To date, the government has completed three two-year national action plans on open government and will be finalizing it’s 4th National Action Plan on Open Government in June 2021.

• As part of Canada’s leadership role, the government hosted a global Summit in Ottawa in May 2019, advancing open government practices globally.
• The government has committed to actively providing Canadians with access to trustworthy government data and information related to COVID-19 through the Open Government Portal, including data on the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
• We are working with departments to proactive disclose government information in a timely manner, and to support the Government of Canada’s response to COVID-19 by accelerating the publishing and discovery of open data.

Current Priorities
• Open government has been identified as a priority in all ministerial mandate letters and was featured in Budgets 2016 and 2018. Access to information and data has been a key issue during the pandemic.
• Canada is engaging citizens to develop its 5th National Action Plan on Open Government. On September 21st, Canada launched a fully digital consultation to inform the development of its 5th National Action Plan.
• The Prime Minister and the Minister of Digital Government presented at the OGP Virtual Leaders Summit held on the margins of the UN General Assembly, on September 24th, along with other Heads of States such Chancellor Merkel and President Macron.

Key Achievements

Global leader
• Canada is seen as a leader in inclusive open government, ranking first globally (tied with the United Kingdom) on the Web Foundation’s 2018 Open Data Barometer, and 5th on the OECD 2019 Open Useful and Reusable (OUR)Data Index.
• Canada has been a member of the Open Government Partnership since 2012 and was elected on the Steering Committee in 2017. Canada was the government chair for 2018-2019, year where Canada hosted the OGP Global Summit in Ottawa.
• Canada was recently re-elected on the Steering Committee for an additional three years, a mandate that will start in October 2020.

Open Government Portal and Open Data
• Open.canada.ca contains open data, open information and proactive disclosures from over 149 federal institutions and receives 150,000 visits on average every month.
• As of September 2020, the portal hosts over 80,000 of the Government of Canada’s open datasets and digital records, as well as nearly 1.3 million proactive disclosure records.
o The open government portal also federates open data from the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, an important component to be able to provide unrestricted reuse by users regardless of where the data originates in Canada.
o Key examples of Government of Canada open data initiatives also include:
o Open Maps: brings together the Government of Canada’s geospatial data, services, and applications for Canadians.
o GC Infobase: an interactive data-visualization tool transforming complex federal data into simple visual stories for Canadians.

Open Government Support for COVID-19 Response
• Open government has been supporting the COVID-19 pandemic by accelerating the publishing and discovery of open data on the Government of Canada’s response available on the open government portal.
• The Prime Minister announced in the April 17, 2020 COVID-19 briefing that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit data would be made available on the open government portal, which was done in June 2020, followed by the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy data in July 2020 and Canada Emergency Student Benefit data in August 2020.

Transparency
o Centralized proactive disclosure reporting on open.canada.ca includes: access to information summaries, ministerial transition binders, question period cards, government contracts, grants and contributions, travel and hospitality, and position reclassifications.
o Of note:
o As of September 2020, 24,700 titles of briefing notes to deputy ministers and ministers have been published online.
o In January 2020, institutions began publishing ministerial Question Period notes, with a total of 1,190 published to date.
More than 30 briefing binders for incoming or new ministers are also available on the open government portal.

• On April 17, 2020, the Prime Minister announced that Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) data would be made available on the Government of Canada’s Open Government Portal, which was published in June 2020 followed by the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) data in July 2020 and Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) data in August 2020.
• On September 21, 2020, we launched a fully digital pre-consultation phase with the public to inform the development of Canada’s 5th National Action Plan on Open Government.
• Open.canada.ca contains open data, open information and proactive disclosures from over 149 federal institutions and receives 150,000 visits on average per month.
• As of September 2020, the portal hosts over 80,000 of the Government of Canada’s open datasets and digital records, as well as nearly 1.3 million proactive disclosure records.
• Canada has been a member of the Open Government Partnership since 2012 and was elected on the Steering Committee in 2017.
• Canada was recently re-elected on the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee for an additional three years, a mandate that will start in October 2020.