What We Heard Report: Canada’s 2025-2029 National Action Plan on Open Government
Introduction
As a member of the Open Government Partnership, Canada releases a National Action Plan on Open Government (NAP) every two to four years. The plan sets the direction for open government in Canada. It is developed by the Government of Canada, in partnership with Canada’s Multi-Stakeholder Forum, and Canadians are invited to provide feedback on it.
The plan outlines specific and concrete changes to advance transparency, integrity, accountability, and citizen participation in government.
The Open Government team at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) is responsible for drafting the plan and for holding public consultations as part of the drafting process. For the previous NAP, all public consultations took place online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The public consultations on the new NAP involved both in-person and online engagement sessions across Canada. Members of the public were involved at each phase of development, and their feedback was incorporated throughout the plan.
This report summarizes what we heard for each of the themes during the consultations and how we addressed this feedback.
The full text of Canada’s 2025–2029 NAP can be found on Canada.ca and on the Open Government Partnership website.
Key concepts
As we engaged with people across Canada, the following key concepts emerged:
- Public input into decisions is essential: Inclusive and participatory approaches are essential so that government programs and services reflect the diverse realities of the people they serve. The public wants meaningful opportunities to work with government to identify and address systemic barriers to programs and services.
- Ongoing relationship-building should be prioritized over isolated engagement activities: To build relationships of trust, there must be meaningful and ongoing dialogue. It can’t happen only when one party wants something from the other.
- To build relationships and generate insights, engagement must happen both in person and online: In-person, face-to-face dialogue fosters trust, connection and fresh perspectives, demonstrating that public input is valued. Online engagement increases access and inclusivity, enabling diverse voices to participate regardless of location. Together, they create a complementary process.
Collaboration with the Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Open Government
Canada’s Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Open Government is a permanent dialogue mechanism that fosters collaboration between civil society and government representatives on open government reforms. Canada worked extensively with the forum in developing the 2025–2029 NAP, beginning in early 2024.
Co-developing the NAP started with consulting the forum. The Open Government team at TBS worked closely with forum members to identify priority areas. Discussions drew on research and analyses of Canada’s open government performance, including third-party evaluations by organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Open Government Partnership Independent Reporting Mechanism.
Themes
Four themes were identified for the engagement:
- Inclusive and meaningful public participation
- Protecting civic space and democracy in the digital era
- Anti-corruption, public confidence, and corporate transparency
- Designing inclusive government programs and services
- Although extensive work happens outside these four themes, they are areas that need sustained focus to advance open government.
Overview of the engagement process
From to , online surveys, virtual sessions and in-person workshops took place across the country. Guided by open government priorities and by Open Government Partnership Policy areas, these efforts gathered input from a diverse range of the public.
Canada partnered with Indigenous Link on a targeted outreach campaign to raise awareness and encourage engagement among Indigenous communities. These efforts were designed to bring diverse perspectives to the 2025–2029 NAP and its commitments.
Results of the engagement
In-person engagement
From to : 19 sessions were held in cities across Canada, bringing together 372 participants. Cities visited Sessions took place in Charlottetown, Edmonton, Fredericton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Saskatoon, St. Catherine’s, St. John’s, Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo, Whitehorse, Winnipeg and Yellowknife.
Online platform
The website letstalkopengovernment.ca was the main engagement platform, recording about 7,400 visits during the consultation period.
Timeline and activities
Spring 2024 ( to ): The initial online engagement launched and included surveys for public input. It collected 105 survey responses.
Winter to spring 2025 ( to ): The online platform relaunched to support discussions on the themes. The platform received 39 comments on idea boards for the themes and had 52 registered members (registration was required).
Fall 2025 ( to ): Public feedback on draft commitments was collected through surveys. The platform received 22 responses and 87 comments on the 20 commitments. Online question-and-answer sessions were held on draft activities. A total of 24 participants attended these sessions with subject-matter experts from different departments.
Theme 1: Inclusive and meaningful public participation
| What we heard | Government of Canada response |
|---|---|
Involve youth in public policy-making through education and participatory mechanisms. Provide a curriculum-linked outreach program that gives young people a formal role in shaping priorities and decisions. Build and sustain partnerships with local organizations to design and deliver engagement activities. |
The Government of Canada committed to creating a multi-collaborator forum at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that includes youth, representatives of non-governmental organizations, academics and community leaders. This forum will guide priorities for openness and transparency (NAP milestone 1.1). The Public Participation Maturity Model created by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat will help departments build consistent, inclusive engagement practices (NAP milestone 1.4). |
| Sustain engagement with Indigenous communities, supported by culturally appropriate processes and by respect for data sovereignty. | The Royal Canadian Mounted Police committed to implementing a working group on Indigenous data sovereignty to advance reconciliation commitments (NAP milestone 1.3). Indigenous Services Canada committed to developing a secure external portal that will give Indigenous organizations access to non-sensitive federal data. Data needs will be addressed proactively, when feasible, to improve efficiency and increase transparency (NAP milestone 1.6). |
People want direct, timely ways to contribute to federal policy and program development. There are barriers such as low awareness opportunities, digital access and limited clarity on next steps after engagement. To build trust, people want outreach, accessible formats and transparent reporting. |
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is committed to establishing an enterprise-wide consultation platform to engage with communities. The results will be posted on the Open Government Portal (NAP milestone 1.2). Public Services and Procurement Canada and Health Canada committed to fostering meaningful public engagement throughout the federal science ecosystem by reducing barriers and promoting citizen-science methods. Canadians will have opportunities to participate in research and policy development related to science, health and the environment. This includes developing infrastructure and a digital prototype platform to facilitate dialogue and discussion (NAP milestone 1.5). |
| People want government to make public participation a regular part of its work through standards, capacity-building and evidence-based improvements. | Veterans Affairs Canada committed to promote open government practices in the department. An internal working group will be formed to raise awareness and to consider what could be made available on the Open Government Portal (NAP milestone 1.7). The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat committed to launching the Public Participation Maturity Model. This pilot initiative, which will be run in partnership with other departments, will identify best practices and refine approaches for inclusive engagement (NAP milestone 1.4). |
Theme 2: Protecting civic space and democracy in the digital era
| What we heard | Government of Canada response |
|---|---|
| People want to become more media literate through programs that assess online information and reduce the spread of misinformation. Participants noted that misinformation can undermine trust in democratic institutions. They called for initiatives that build resilience against disinformation campaigns. | Canadian Heritage committed to using the work of the Digital Citizen Initiative to identity domestic and international best practices and to develop a knowledge-sharing strategy to strengthen Canadians’ resilience to online disinformation (NAP milestone 2.2). |
| People want greater transparency and access to government data and records, particularly those that inform public policy and decisions. They want proactive access that is based on public demand, and a clear process for deciding which records are opened first. | Library and Archives Canada is renewing its Access Policy Framework and is proactively removing barriers to archival records. By 2029, 30% to 50% of archival Government of Canada records will be open and readily available for Canadians to access in person or online (NAP milestone 2.3). |
| People want government and civil society to work together to create solutions that protect civic space. They want assurance that personal data collected during consultations is handled responsibly. | The Royal Canadian Mounted Police committed to strengthening public participation by establishing a public participation framework and guidebook. These resources will encourage Canadians to participate in activities and will include an ethics and personal data tool to make sure data is handled legally and ethically (NAP milestone 2.1). |
Theme 3: Anti-corruption, public confidence, and corporate transparency
| What we heard | Government of Canada response |
|---|---|
| People want greater transparency in government decision and policy-making, including about who is consulted and why. | Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) committed to improving transparency in the government’s human resources and pay transformation. PSPC will foster dialogue with stakeholders and publish internal documents related to human resources and pay initiatives on the Open Government Portal (NAP milestone 3.4). |
| People want increased transparency on how artificial intelligence (AI) is used in government, including details on data usage, training and safeguards. | The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) committed to publishing a register of its AI systems. The register will list all AI systems within a defined scope, which will be posted on the register itself. It will include information about what and how data is being used; how the model was trained; and what quality assurance, privacy and security measures are in place. To make sure the register meets user needs, TBS will first develop and publish a minimum viable product using data and information already collected. It will then engage internal and external users to refine and improve the content, format and functionality of the register. It will also work with government departments to identify how to find additional information without creating excessive compliance burden (NAP milestone 3.3). |
People want more transparency in prosecutions and investigations, including those involving corporations and criminal activity. People want better access to government information. |
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) committed to disclosing crime information received through the Police Reporting and Occurrence System. Disclosures will meet the requirements for releasing information about ongoing investigations. The RCMP will also provide dashboards on high-level crime statistics and aggregated occurrence maps (NAP milestone 3.1). Canadian Heritage committed to making government data from the Creative Export Strategy into one user-friendly, interactive and accessible interface (NAP milestone 3.2). |
Theme 4: Designing inclusive government programs and services
| What we heard | Government of Canada response |
|---|---|
| Expand access to programs and services for international students, newcomers, and underserved populations. | The Department of Justice Canada committed to supporting the design and delivery of accessible administrative services. It will track the number of administrative bodies that apply the Access to Justice Index. Feedback will be measured from administrative bodies to support more accessible and user-friendly services (NAP milestone 4.5). |
| Make sure public data is accessible, interoperable and easy to analyze to support informed decision-making and participation. | The Department of Justice Canada committed to updating the State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard and to automating updates to make it easier to share data with the public. To make sure data is of good quality, the department will seek qualitative feedback from key stakeholders (NAP milestone 4.4). The Department of Justice Canada committed to monitoring Canadians’ experiences with legal problems, using findings from the National Justice Survey and Serious Legal Problems in Canada. These findings will be published in user-friendly formats (NAP milestone 4.3). |
| Government services need to be responsive and inclusive in all Indigenous regions. | The Royal Canadian Mounted Police committed to aligning its “open-by-default” and “secure-by-design” approach to advance Indigenous people’s sovereignty over their information. It also committed to limiting legislative barriers through proactive disclosure to make it easier to share information with Indigenous communities (NAP milestone 4.1). |
| Increase awareness about open government and open data initiatives to encourage public servants to get involved in open government. | The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat committed to developing a targeted learning series on open data for use by federal public servants. This series will be part of the foundational training and will promote open data principles (NAP milestone 4.2). |