Working with the provinces and territories

Working with the provinces and territories

The federal government works with the provinces and territories on a wide range of public policy matters - IT and digital systems are no exception.

Historically, services across Government of Canada (GC) departments and across provinces, territories and municipalities have been developed and digitalized independently of one another. Federal departments and provincial and territorial ministries do not always have access to common digital tools that can be adopted and that are interoperable (in other words, that can talk to each other) to quickly put services in place.

As a result, Canadians can find services they receive from different levels of government to be inconsistent and disjointed, where the onus is on the individual to understand and navigate. There are inefficiencies, as efforts and investments are duplicated across the GC. Canadians navigating multiple levels of government are likely to experience even greater challenges getting the information and services they need.

Taking a people-centred approach to service means doing direct, continuous research and testing with the people who will use the service and using that to make frequent changes through agile software development. This also means alleviating silos within and across governments to deliver a consistent, integrated experience that disregards traditional program and IT silos.

Case Study

  • Alberta and British Columbia issued digital identities (MyAlberta Digital IDentity and BC Services Card) and integrated them with CRA and Service Canada, giving holders of these digital identities rapid access to federal government programs such as Employment Insurance and the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit.
    • A digital identity pilot project launched in the summer of 2019 enabled people in Alberta to log in to Government of Canada online services using their MyAlberta Digital IDentity
    • Another project, launched in February 2020, saw the British Columbia government and the Canada Revenue Agency enable access to CRA’s My Account and the CERB with the BC Services card

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