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Chapter 5. Government of Canada
- University of Ottawa Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Chapter 5 Government of Canada Under the rubric of a Connecting Canadians agenda, thefederal government launched itsflagship e-government initiative, Government Online, in 1999, promising to make use of cyberspace as a means to both share information more widely and transform service delivery over afive-year period. A centrepieceof this effort has been the creation of a 'secure channel' in order tofacilitate online transacting, while departments have been encouraged toforge innovative schemes to integrate service offerings within the thematic clusters provided for by the central portal. Progress has meant overcoming significant governance barriers that have nonetheless spurred further efforts to realize interoperability and afederated enterprise architecture for the government as a whole. The importance of such themes was enhanced by the aftermath of 9/11 when the purpose and players of information sharing shifted but the organizational and technological process requirements remained. 9/11 also reinforced a culture of secrecy that is often at odds with thegovernment's own rhetoricabout wanting to be more open and accessible through online channels. Similarly, despite flirtations with the notion of a 'democratic deficit,' the realms of transparency and trust have by and large created discomfort for a governing and political context shaped by scandal and a minority Parliament. The result is an overriding focus on service and security measures that seek to expand the use of digital technologies while minimizing political risk changes institutionally that would reorganize and share power in new ways. In short, e-government is ostensibly viewed as a means to preserving and deploying power. The chapter is organized in thefollowing manner. Section 5.1 examines the evolution of online service delivery as a central tenant of the government's efforts to realize more citizen-centric forms of governance. Section 5.2 then considers the evolution of the security agenda both as an underlying requirement for service objectives and as a separate but partially related agenda for public safety, surveillance, and domestic responsiveness to threats such as international terrorism. Section 5.3 explores the interrelated themes of transparency and trust and their influence on democratic reform debates including experiments and reforms that have emerged in recent years at the 112 E-GOVERNMENT IN CANADA federal level Section5.4 concludes with a more collective assessmentof these various dimensions ofe-gov ernment at thefederal level 5.1 From Government Online to Service Canada The impetus for the major components of the federal e-government strategy arose from a broader effort, Connecting Canadians, that was crafted in the mid-1990s and led by the federal DepartmentofIndustry. In the speech from the throne onOctober 12,1999, outlining itsobjectives and priorities, the Government ofCanada stated that, "By 2004, our goal is to be known around the world as the government most connected to its citizens:TheGovernment On-LineInitiative (GOL) was launched to meet this commitment. The goal of GOLis to provide Canadians with electronic access to key federal programs and services. The initiative focuses on grouping or 'clustering' online services around citizens' needs and priorities, rather than by government structures" (Coe2004, 6). The government has often showcased citizen satisfaction surveys with online delivery channels,1 and Canada's reputation internationally has also been bolstered by international observers, such as Accenture Consulting, that ranked Canada as a globalleader—recognition largely predicated initiallyon the government's main portal (www.gc.ca) that, in the spirit of integrated service delivery, is grouped according to clusters ofservices and specific client groups.2 Thefederal government's objective is to ensure that the 130most common federal services are online by 2005(when the GOLprogramformally ends, giving way to a broader service transformationeffort reviewed below). By2004, some 122of these 130services were 'identifiable' online (meaning access to some information about them was featured on government webpages; the remaining services are internal to government and therefore not conveyed publicly online). Most of these offerings, however, are informational rather than transactional. The ability to complete services and make payments remains much more limited. Some examplesofthis latter functionality include change-of-addressfeatures, online processing of tax returns, business registrations, submission of select statements of employment, and a variety ofpurchases for government publications. Indeed, online processing of individual tax returns is perhaps the most significant [54.157.61.194] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 09:39 GMT) GO VERNMENT OF CANADA 113 example of success, with nearly half of all tax returns submitted online in 2003-04(afigure expected to surpass the fifty percent mark by 200405 ). With regard to 'transforming services' across departments and agencies, progress...