Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 02

March/April 2018 // Canadian Government Executive / 35 TECHGOV FORUM need to make procurement work better. It is one of the great challenges of our time, and I am delighted in/with the work that Public Services and Procurement Canada is doing. If you have been in the government for any length of time, or if you have watched it from outside, you have seen a lot of change. Organizations come together or they are taken apart. We see breakups and we see mergers where organizations are put together. That is really the Prime Min- ister’s prerogative to organize government as he or she sees fit, and my job is to help match those structures to what is required at the time. My job is to also reduce friction in trans- actional costs of organizational change so that governments can decide to move re- sources around and create focus or synergy at far less cost and disruption. I have been through many departmental reorganiza- tions where the first year is spent trying to sort out internal plumbing and internal services, organizational charts and build- ings, and that sort of thing. I want to drive those friction costs down as close to zero as possible. That is why we need interop- erability and mobility. It is important that people and data move around as quickly and as seamlessly as possible within orga- nizations and across organizations. That can be a challenge. There are many reasons why we need to come together more as a single enterprise. One reason is service. Canadians do not care which department or agency or sub- unit that they get service from; they just want the service. They want it seamlessly, they want it 24/7, they want it on their por- table devices, they want it in both official languages, and they want it in formats that are state-of-the-art for persons with dis- abilities. The second reason is cyber security. Government networks and information are targets for hackers and vandals every day. Private companies worry a lot about cyber breaches and cyber integrity. For government, the standards and expecta- tions are even higher. Canadians, rightly, will not tolerate breaches of sensitive gov- ernment information or the information that government holds about them, like their tax records, census filings, or corpo- rate business information. You will see in 2018 a very robust cyber security strategy from the Government of Canada. It will affect the private sector, and it will affect government and the way that we interact with each other. Government innovation is not without constraints. It has to work in two official languages, and it has to be state-of-the-art accessible and cyber secure. This year, the Government will be tabling accessibility legislation, which aspires to make Canada and its government the most accessible on the planet. We will get there. So, pitch all you want and innovate all you want, but it has to work in two offi- cial languages, be fully accessible, and be secure. These requirements are not nego- tiable. You will have taken note I am sure, as keen observers of government, of the tar- gets announced last year as part of Can- ada’s climate change commitments. We have committed to reduce the GHG and carbon footprint of the operations of the Government of Canada by 80 per cent. Technology can help us get there and can be part of the solution. This is relevant to those of you working on smarter build- ings, devices and work practices. If you are going to be dealing with government, think about the carbon footprint, and what the implication is of your services and operations. Every government is interested in pro- ductivity gains and cost savings. Every government wants to be lean and pro- ductive. They want to provide services to citizens that are smooth, accurate and frustration-free. Today, people want their services to be fast and accurate and in- creasingly personalized. This is an area where many sectors are ahead of govern- ment. We need greater expertise in queue management, customer satisfaction, and how to use the data that is gathered by millions of service interactions, combine it with intelligent software, and constant- ly refine and improve that experience. We also have to keep privacy and secu- rity in balance with customer experience and service – that is another of the chal- lenges of our time. We must keep the trust of Canadians that their privacy is being protected. We expect future Parliaments and Cabi- nets to be there, and governments will continue to strive to deliver those quintes- sential Canadian aspirations for peace, or- der and good government. They will strive to keep Canadians safe, as threats evolve and change. They will try in different ways to help Canadians prosper, to generate wealth and opportunity and good jobs, and the resources that pay for the kinds of pub- lic services that Canadians will be asking for. They will try to exert a positive influ- ence on the world, contributing to global roles and institutions. We need to protect our interests and project our values. Cana- dian governments will continue to make this country a beacon of diversity, toler- ance, rule of law and inclusion. Canadians are experiencing the benefits of new technologies and services in their daily lives. One of the pressures on us in government is that they will not accept for very long, levels of service that are lower than what they experience in their day-to-day interactions with their bank, their hotels bookings or their car dealers. Mercifully, the days of driving across town to government offices to stand in line-ups for hours and hand over pieces of paper and then maybe get something mailed to you weeks later, are quickly fad- ing to be a distant memory. Today, 60 per cent of our service interactions with Ca- nadians are online and 30 per cent are by telephone. More and more what people are looking for, of course, is 24/7 service. To go back to my earlier point, it has to be secure, in both official languages and ac- cessible to all Canadians. For the rest of the interview, go to: https://www.canada.ca/en/privy-coun- cil/news/2018/02/remarks_at_tech- govleadershipforum.html or scan. My job is to also reduce friction in transactional costs of organizational change so that govern- ments can decide to move resources around and create focus or synergy at far less cost and disruption.