The Government of Canada’s Digital Ambition: 2023–24 Year in Review

The GC’s Enterprise Cyber Security Strategy is the first of its kind and is a testament to our commitment to keeping Canadians safe in the digital age. As a whole-of-government strategy, it will reduce redundancies while addressing gaps in government cyber resilience and promoting year-round testing of federal institutions’ cyber security posture.

By centralizing guides, best practices and templates, the Digital Privacy Playbook makes it easy for federal public servants to ensure that privacy considerations are incorporated into all stages of a digital initiative. During the 2023–24 fiscal year, the Digital Privacy Playbook web page received over 11,000 page views and 4,500 unique visitors. The top three visitor locations were:

• Ontario (5,131 page views)
• Quebec (820 page views) 
• outside Canada (767 page views)

Canadians should know that the GC considers privacy and security at the foundation of all its digital initiatives. If every GC initiative has a strong foundation in privacy, the better Canadians can trust using it.

The Transportation Security Services (TSS) platform is a key component of the Transportation Security Clearance Program. TSS simplifies the vetting of non-government employees for travel by providing a one-stop shop for everyone involved in processing transportation security clearances, including airports, marine ports, applicants, and security institutions such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Speeding up the process through which the public is vetted helps services become quicker and more efficient.

As part of the shift toward centralization of services and the move toward enterprise and common applications, the new Application Hosting Strategy provides direction for federal government institutions on how to provide optimal application hosting solutions that:

• are cost-effective
• bring high business value to support the delivery of efficient and user-friendly digital services to Canadians

Published in May 2024, the GC’s Trust and Transparency Strategy sets out a whole-of-government vision, including core principles, desired outcomes, strategic objectives and commitments to support federal government institutions in reinforcing public trust. To meet the objectives of the strategy, new guidance to federal government institutions was also released on the consideration of time thresholds when applying exemptions to the Access to Information Act.

To support federal institutions in the effective, secure and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the evergreen Guide on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence was published in September 2023. Updates to the guide in February 2024 incorporated feedback from targeted stakeholder engagement and further outlined the role of federal institutions in supporting the exploration of AI in a way that ensures that risks are managed effectively. To complement the guide and support public servants, the Canada School of Public Service, Shared Services Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat have partnered to offer a new course, “Using Generative AI in the Government of Canada.

In response to service challenges and declining public trust in government services, the Office of the Chief Information Officer of Canada launched a new performance approach to improve responsiveness to service issues and drive digital transformation. This approach aims to create a holistic view of service delivery and includes a dashboard to track the following:

• key operational and performance metrics
• an annual capacity self-assessment
• quarterly meetings with other federal government institutions

The dashboard showcases 25 to 30 high-impact, high-risk services chosen based on volume, significance, impact on vulnerable populations, investments and service delivery changes. This risk-based approach fosters better oversight, decision-making and communication between institutions and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to identify gaps, find solutions and inform investment decisions.
 
Action is being taken to use tools such as the Enterprise Health Dashboard and the Capacity Self-Assessment to measure and reduce the administrative burden for people accessing services. We are enabling teams that provide services to provide their services better and faster.

To reduce the administrative burden on federal institutions, the Office of the Chief Information Officer of Canada conducted a review of 14 policy instruments related to the Policy on Service and Digital to assess whether they were outdated and justified within the current policy suite. With consensus from stakeholders, it was determined that four duplicative or obsolete instruments (with nine requirements) would be rescinded by April 2024.

These consultations signalled readiness to revisit policy instruments to ensure ongoing relevance. The consultations have also mobilized people to address gaps and find ways to better support implementation through other policy options, leading to further administrative burden reduction down the road.

Effective April 1, 2024, the Privy Council Office updated the Policy on the Security of Cabinet Confidences, which, among other things, specified that a Cabinet confidence (such as a memorandum to Cabinet) was automatically classified as Secret. Because of this classification, all Cabinet material other than Treasury Board submissions had to be handled on isolated Secret systems.

The new policy states that material should be categorized according to its content, thereby enabling memoranda on Cabinet confidences to be drafted, handled and submitted on the Protected B network. While still new, the update is expected to make a huge difference in handling Cabinet material more efficiently, ensuring that the right material gets the right level of security.