Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Ottawa Convention Centre
55 Colonel By Drive
Check against delivery
Good morning.
It's a pleasure to be here among people who value information technology (IT) as much as I do. Like you, I have become quite a tech enthusiast.
I'm fascinated by technology, and I love how with just a simple tweet, I can connect, engage, and share ideas instantly with countless people around the world.
I'm excited about the possibilities IT holds to build the government of the future. IT has increasingly allowed us to conduct much government business with ease, speed, and security.
Today, I want to tell you how I see IT transforming how government works.
There is a tremendous opportunity to take the tools of information technology and make government faster, more effective and more efficient. I believe we can enhance core government business such as program and service delivery, and even policy-making, with the right technology tools.
I want you to help me achieve those goals. And I want to let you know that the federal government is interested in your input as a tech community. You know what works. We want to hear your advice.
I like to tell people that when I was Industry minister, I was responsible for Canadian innovation. Now that I am President of the Treasury Board, I want to champion innovation in government.
I'm going to talk to you today about a broader vision for the government of tomorrow, a government that runs more smoothly on information technology know-how.
It is a government that takes on the challenge to be a global leader in openness, transparency and security. We have already taken some steps towards making that government a reality. But there is much more to do.
Right now, the move to update federal government technology is linked to the government's overarching plans to find savings across departments in programs and services. This year, we received a mandate from Canadians to eliminate the deficit, keep taxes low and continue creating jobs, and IT can help us.
Modernizing government by using technology to work smarter, while improving services to Canadians, is a goal that we have.
I believe change is necessary to grow. Other governments around the world are taking similar measures.
And you have a role to play in this innovation, in this information technology renewal of the Government of Canada.
Let's consider government IT operations.
I don't think anyone here would dispute the claim that a significant portion of federal IT infrastructure is aging. It costs taxpayers more than it should to operate every day.
Each government department sets up and runs its own IT infrastructure, resulting in fragmentation, duplication and inefficiencies. Consolidating and streamlining email, data centre and network services is about improving services and saving money.
As you probably know, this summer we set about doing just that.
We launched Shared Services Canada to transform and get better value for money from Information Technology services across the federal government. This marked a key turning point in the management of government IT services.
Shared Services Canada is consolidating existing resources and personnel relating to email, data centres, networks, and associated internal services from the most IT-intensive departments and agencies in government.
This consolidation will enable Shared Services Canada to manage and transform IT infrastructure at a whole-of-government level, drawing on significant economies of scale. Where it makes sense to do so, we will pursue public-private partnerships.
Shared Services Canada will support departments and agencies in taking advantage of new approaches to improve the delivery of federal programs and services. It will not only allow us to keep up with technological change, but it's the best approach to fully harness the power of information technology to do more for Canadians than we can today.
I urge those of you here today from the IT vendor community to work with the government as we establish this new department. It will leverage technology in new and creative ways.
Canada must remain competitive. The streamlining of federal government IT will help it maintain its strong economic position. By looking for new opportunities to standardize, streamline and automate business processes, we can ultimately improve workforce productivity, reduce operating costs, and derive better value for money from what we do.
That strength, in turn, translates into new opportunities for innovative technology, opening new doors in information management. We can transform the way we do business by harnessing IT in new ways—including
- An understanding of the value of social media tools, as a way to bridge the distance between government and Canadians; and
- A further commitment to all three streams of Open Government—Open Data, Open Information and Open Dialogue.
Our Government is committed to offering Canadians greater opportunities to learn about and participate in government, in the economy, and in our democratic process. They will have greater access to data from federal departments and be able to find, download and use information they want more easily.
Our Open Government activities are detailed at www.open.gc.ca, where we describe actions to strengthen Open Data, Open Information and Open Dialogue. We will post information about new activities as they are undertaken.
As announced last March, starting in 2012, all departments and agencies subject to the Access to Information Act will be required to post summaries of completed information requests on their websites.
Canada will soon have the chance to step on the world stage as a leader in Open Government. We were one of the countries to signal our intent to participate in an international Open Government Partnership.
As part of our leadership role in increasing governmental transparency and accountability, Canada has joined the international Open Government Partnership. This important initiative was launched by the United States and Brazil and aims to secure concrete commitments from other governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
Having joined the partnership, we will be delivering an Open Government plan informed by broad consultation by March 2012.
Being part of this partnership will offer Canada a means to connect internationally through its Open Government agenda. This will be an opportunity for Canadian companies to showcase their innovations.
In the long term, open governments and economies will pay dividends for our business sector. They also stand to have an impact on Canadian society in general: increasing transparency, accountability and citizen engagement.
These are big steps. They are going to require hard work from all of us.
It may take time before the developments I have spoken about—the developments starting to take place now—will be fully realized. But at the same time, I feel confident that you, as an audience, share my optimism.
Current conditions demand exceptional creativity on the part of people who work in government or with government. And we stand to make significant gains.
By strengthening IT and information management, we will indeed make the government of tomorrow a reality.
Thank you.
