Roadmap for a more Digital Government

Transforming Canadians’ experience with government is an ongoing process of experimentation, testing, collaboration and improvement. Here’s an overview of some recent achievements and upcoming milestones in the GC’s digital journey.

Short-term (1 to 2 years)

• Stabilize mission-critical systems most at risk of failing and negatively impacting the lives of Canadians and residents. Top priority will be the success of the highest‑impact legacy modernization systems (benefits, immigration and Next Gen HR and Pay).
  • SSC and the Office of the Chief Information Officer will continue to lead the Next Generation HR and Pay initiative and test solutions to develop a recommendation for an eventual replacement of the current pay system and 34 current HR systems.
• Scale GC Notify to add more services so that individuals can opt in to receive updates by email, by text message, or both, on relevant information or on their transactions with government.
• Begin to replace thousands of inaccessible and inconvenient PDF forms with modern, mobile friendly web versions to allow Canadians to submit information easily and securely, and to complete other transactions online.
• Enhance Canada.ca by building out the GCDesign system more fully, and integrate page feedback into optimization work. Continue to provide hands-on support to departments to build their capacity and improve how they design and deliver their services.
• Build a modern enterprise technology approach for common requirements across government and evolve cloud standards to accelerate the secure adoption of cloud as part of the government’s cloud‑first strategy.
• Continue to establish additional digital identity programs so that individuals and businesses can sign in once to securely access Government of Canada online services.
• Actively recruit a diverse and inclusive workforce and retain top digital talent in the public service, while up‑skilling the executive ranks and building career pathways.
• Continue to provide training to senior leaders and working-level employees on technology to help identify efficiencies and cost-saving at all levels and foster a closer connection to user needs.
• Streamline procurement processes and approaches to support an agile approach to IT projects while ensuring adequate oversight and clear accountabilities. Develop advice to support different procurement options (i.e. off the shelf, internal build and development, external procurement).

Long term (3 to 5 years)

• Better align efforts to build a strong foundation for the strategic stewardship of data and information across the GC. These actions will help ensure that departments and agencies, regardless of their progress on implementing their own data plans, invest in projects and activities that align with, or complement the GC’s overall direction.
• Improve user-centric design, incorporating content and services into a seamless experience for Canadians through a Canada.ca design system and other platform services. This will be accomplished by:
  • expanding the use of the standardized Canada.ca task performance framework to every department and agency’s top tasks
  • scaling optimization efforts across departments and agencies so that GC content and services are better meeting the needs of users and optimization becomes a part of regular business
• Continue to reform governance processes with respect to long-standing institutional barriers (human resources management, financial management, procurement, talent management). This includes exploring and implementing streamlined and agile governance approaches that favour demonstrations of a working product over written justifications and that have real consequences if a project is not going well and cannot be course‑corrected.

Achieved

• Established the Canadian Digital Service, to support departments in improving their digital services through hands-on help from experts and multidisciplinary teams. (2017)
• Established the Digital Transformation Office to optimize web content on Canada.ca, with the aim of making it easier for Canadians to find and access the information, benefits and services they need, while reducing duplication of effort across departments. (2018)
• Established the Digital Academy, to provide courses and up‑skilling opportunities for public servants to improve digital literacy across the GC. (2018)
• Launched the GC Digital Standards, forming the foundation for the Government of Canada’s shift to becoming more agile, open and user focused. (2018)
• Canada’s first-ever stand-alone Minister of Digital Government was appointed. (2019)
• The Digital Transformation Office launched a modernized Canada.ca design. (2019)
• Established digital identity pilot programs with Alberta and British Columbia so that individuals and businesses can sign in once to securely access Government of Canada online services. (2019)
• Upgraded networks, enabling federal public servants to deliver critical services to Canadians remotely and increasing secure remote access capacity by over 100%. (2020)
• Brought into effect the Treasury Board Policy on Service and Digital, to align digital transformation efforts across departments and agencies. (2020)
• Launched GC Notify, a platform tool that provides any Government of Canada department with the ability to send email or text notifications quickly, cheaply and with confidence. Over 11.8 million notifications have been sent to date, supporting 110 services across 25 government departments. (2020)
• Budget 2021 showcased Canada’s commitment to digital government by proposing over $2.5 billion in funding for high impact digital services (for example, accessing and delivering benefits, e payroll to help businesses, and immigration application processing) and over $1 billion of that amount dedicated to advancing the digital transformation to improve service delivery across the government. (2021)
  • This includes:
    • proposed funding for the Canadian Digital Service to renew and expand its capacity to support departments and agencies and to develop and deliver services that meet the needs of people and businesses across Canada
    • a proposed increase in funding for the Office of the Chief Information Officer to provide strategic direction and leadership in the areas of information technology, information and data management, security, privacy, and access to information across the Government of Canada