Question Period Note: Digital Government

In June 2021, Canada’s Digital Government Strategy was released. This document outlined the Government’s priorities for digital government and provided a roadmap for implementation. This work continues to underpin efforts across the Government of Canada to deliver safe, secure, and reliable services and information to citizens, residents, visitors and businesses.

•Digital government is about delivering better services to citizens, residents, visitors, and businesses, achieved by putting the right tools, systems, and people in place.
•Efforts to deliver secure, seamless services and information are focused on four key areas:
o Modernizing the way we replace, build, and manage major IT systems;
oProviding services to people when and where they need them;
oTaking a coordinated approach to digital operations; and
oTackling long-standing institutional barriers to change and innovation.
•Our government must set priorities and make choices as the demand outstrips weighs the capacity and technical debt level is problematic.
•These efforts are built upon a strong policy framework and a set of digital principles characterized by a preoccupation with accessibility, information and data, cyber security, and, above all, user needs.

The Government of Canada is building a policy framework that supports government- wide digital transformation. This includes the Policy on Service and Digital, which took effect April 1, 2020. This policy suite establishes a set of now-integrated rules that will guide how the Government of Canada manages service delivery, accessibility, information and data, information technology, and cyber security to deliver better, user-centric services in the digital era.

The Government of Canada also announced its updated Digital Standards Playbook that establishes how all public servants should work differently in the digital age. This includes ensuring that services, programs and operations are user-centric, and that the Government of Canada leverages digital technologies and methods to deliver the high-quality citizen services Canadians expect. The Standards were recently updated with further guidance on how departments and agencies can fully integrate the Standards into their work.

This includes responsibly and ethically leveraging artificial intelligence in service delivery. The Government of Canada's world-leading Directive on Automated Decision-Making and Algorithmic Impact Assessment tool supports the responsible, human rights-based use of automated decision-making systems by helping departments and agencies assess and mitigate any associated impacts. The Government of Canada has also created an artificial intelligence source list to support departments and agencies in procuring ethical and effective artificial intelligence solutions, services and products that enable improved, digital-age public services.

The Canadian Digital Service delivers a variety of digital government initiatives. GC Notify, a platform product, allows departments to quickly and easily send emails and text messages to service users. To date, 172 services have sent over 22.4 million notifications through GC Notify. COVID Alert is Canada’s free COVID-19 exposure notification app, released in partnership with Health Canada and developed in collaboration with partners in the private sector and provincial governments. These are complemented by numerous partnership initiatives with a wide range of federal organizations, providing targeted advice and assistance on key service initiatives.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat continues to work actively with its partners across the Government of Canada to concretely advance the digital government mandate and to improve services to Canadians. This includes efforts to improve governance while empowering teams to be agile and focus on designing user-centered services.

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