E-Government in Canada: Transformation for the Digital Age

Part One. Four Main Dimensions of Change

Part One Four Main Dimensions of Change he purpose of Part One is to both introduce and dissect the four main dimensions of change (service, security, transparency, and trust) that have arisen during the first decade of the e-government era. Collectively, they encompass a basis for digital transformation, although whether or not such transformation occurs depends very much on how each dimension is recognized and responded to in any given jurisdiction. Thus, while interdependent in many respects, each dimension also comprises a partially distinct sphere of issues and challenges that have arisen due either directly or indirectly to the advent of the Internet. Service: For most public sector managers, the initial impetus for thinking about online dimensions of government operations came during the 1990s, when the mainstream advent of the Internet began to translate into dramatic declines in the cost of both communicating and processing information.Partially aligned with the re-engineering movement ofthe preceding decade, public sector organizations sought new ways to controlcostsand improveorganizationalefficiencies: new and better approaches to managing information technology and the emergence of online channels of service delivery promised significant financial savings. While e-governmenthas improved efficiency at times, such savings have often been overshadowed by both escalating costs and widening purposes as the strategic scope of e-government has extended beyond the realm of financial savings. Three different images of e-government, in terms of the underlying objectives,have been well summarized by Remmen (2004) as (1) efficiency: cost reductions; (2) public service: better quality, easier access (i.e., 24/7), new services;and (3) democracy: participation and interactive dialogue. Thischapter explores the nature of e-government's evolution within and between the first two of these images: efficiency and public service reform. It seeks to explain why the initial hype and hope for efficiency havebeen quickly overtakenby T 2 E-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA a more ambitious and complex set of challenges tied to public service performance in terms of both providing information and access to services and programs online and better integrating such offerings in manners based less on the needs and preferences of the citizen (or customer) than on organizational structure. Security: The emergence of security as a multifaceted governance challenge is a critical variable in government efforts to adapt to the increasingly digital and interdependent realities of today's world. Although there are many dimensions and meanings of 'security/ I invoke the term here in two interrelated uses. First, cybersecurity and online reliability represent important foundationalplatforms necessary to underpin the sustained expansion ofe-commerce,e-government, and all forms of online activity. Second, security strategies devised to both respond to and proactively thwart criminal and terrorist threats are based upon information management capacitiesand awidening digital infrastructure in order to plan, coordinate, and conduct action. September 11th , 2001, marks a critical turning point. Prior to this date, security could arguably have been presented as primarily an extension ofe-commerceand e-government in terms of technologicallyenabled service delivery. Indeed, security remains central to such activity, and as such companies and governments devote considerable attention to encryption, informationmanagement systems, and related elements that underpin online transactions. The overarchingaim is to bolster confidence among Internet users while spoiling the intentions of would-be commercial criminals and/or thrill-seeking hackers. The details of such efforts often remained shielded from widespread political and consumer debate. What mattered more were beneficial outcomes for consumers and citizens in terms of improvements in convenience and/or cost. Service delivery is now accompanied by surveillance, data-mining, and integrated anti-terrorism and public safety strategies. Such activities constitute an important dimension of e-government as a nexus of technology, politics, and organization that has triggered a bolstered and more assertive presenceby national governments. Transparency. According to two prominent observers of Internetinduced change, we live in the "age of transparency" (Tapscott and Ticoll 2003). Organizational openness is in, and it must be viewed as routine and ongoing, whereas secrecy invites suspicion, resulting in PART ONE: FOUR MAIN DIMENSIONS OF CHANGE 3 questions, exposure, and increased costs and complexities down the line. Although this particular invocation offered by Tapscott and Ticoll refers primarily to the actions of private corporations that face greater investor and public scrutiny (ultimately rendering traditional efforts to curb and manage disclosure futile, they argue), governments are not immune to such pressures. Moreover, e-government has created optimistic expectations for improved transparency, as information is more readily...