Canada’s Government On-Line (GOL) Commitment

The Government of Canada is committed to being the government most connected to its citizens, with Canadians able to access all government information and services on-line by 2004.

What follows is a report on the Department of Finance Canada’s GOL vision, strategy, goals and service delivery as of October 31, 2001.

Finance’s GOL Strategy

Overview Information

The Department of Finance Canada’s GOL vision is based on the commitment that clear, relevant and timely information is the service it must and will deliver to Canadians. A good example of the Department’s commitment to clear and timely information is its innovative Internet feature called The Simplifier, which throughout the site links visitors who are having trouble with technical terms and jargon to our bilingual glossary of 300 terms in each official language. Clarity is important because federal budgets and other departmental initiatives directly affect the quality of life and economic activities of Canadians. It is their right to be informed.

Finance Canada’s GOL strategy is to build Web site information on its budget Web pages model, and to do so reflecting the comments of visitors. The goal is to significantly improve existing services to citizens and businesses each year through a more innovative and effective use of the Internet.

While the focus is now on GOL-related information exchange, existing personal-contact, hard-document distribution both on paper and copied to the Web, telephone and surface-mail information capabilities will all be maintained and refined so as to round out the information services approach of the Department.

How Finance’s GOL Strategy Is Developed

The following section deals with the ways in which the Department of Finance Canada identifies client service delivery needs and its own delivery capabilities, and incorporates this information in developing and guiding the departmental GOL strategy.

Web site visitors who wish to provide comments/criticism about Web site information content are directed to the contents comment e-mail address consltcomm@fin.gc.ca.

In conjunction with each federal budget, a special visitor poll is conducted.

The Consultations and Communications (C&C) Branch of the Department of Finance Canada integrates all this information. In addition, it leads an ad hoc working group of officers from around the Department that identifies both information sources and broad or specific client needs. Once requirements for updated or new information are identified, C&C works as required with other responsibility centres, including information technologists and the Library, to create and post the new or simplified information as quickly as time and resources permit.

GOL contact

Claude Hénault
Department of Finance Canada
140 O’Connor St.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0G5
(613) 992-2972
henault.claude@fin.gc.ca

Key Client Services

Service-by-Service Information

The following six services are key to the Department’s communications initiatives.

Budget Information (1)

Service name: Budget Information

Federal government budgets are the Department’s chief information vehicle. All budget documents and other information such as budget livecasts, video clips, slide shows, and multimedia presentations are available free on the Department’s Web site. This will continue to be the case.

Information can vary from budget to budget, but has constants such as: tax policy, personal and business; deficit/surplus information; debt and debt service information; transfers to provinces and territories; and fiscal and economic information.

All budget information has been available free on the Web site since 1998.

Technical upgrades to ensure the Web site continues to provide leading-edge information capabilities will be put in place annually as technological improvements emerge in the marketplace.

The intent is to continue previous years’ Internet budget efforts to break past specific client groups such as economists, fiscalists, tax specialists and other governments, and target all Canadians, because budgets announce policies and initiatives that can affect them all.

The budget, usually tabled early in the year, is generally preceded in the fall by another major statement, The Economic and Fiscal Update.

The chief client benefit sought is a more informed public that is comfortable accessing the information on-line.

The most recent budget URLs are for Budget 2000. In English: http://www.fin.gc.ca/budget00/toc/2000/bud2000e.htm. In French: http://www.fin.gc.ca/budget00/toc/2000/bud2000f.htm.

The most recent update URLs are for Update 2001. In English: http://www.fin.gc.ca/toce/2001/ec2001_e.html. In French: http://www.fin.gc.ca/tocf/2001/ec2001_f.html.

The Budget 2000 site can be found through the gateway for Canadians.

Tax Policy (2)

Service name: Tax Policy Information

Tax policy information, in addition to budget tax information, is continually upgraded throughout the year via the Web site using news releases or other mechanisms such as the Web data bank on international tax treaties, through draft legislation, or involving periodic reports on tax expenditures. Web links exist to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency and other relevant locations.

This information has been provided free on-line since the launch of the Department’s Web site in 1994. No changes to this information source are planned, but it is part of the process of continual upgrades outlined above.

Clients are primarily businesses, accountants and tax specialists, but can also include other interested taxpayers and news media. The chief client benefit sought is ease of access to timely information.

Tariff Policy (3)

Service name: Tariff Policy Information

Finance activities with regard to tariffs engage a great deal of year-round activity including Web-based consultations and the supply of information updates and international information links. A number of relevant domestic and international Web links are provided.

This information has been provided free on-line since 1996. No changes to this information source are planned, but it is part of the process of continual upgrades outlined above.

Clients are primarily businesses, accountants and tax specialists, but can also include other interested Canadians and news media. The chief client benefit sought is ease of access to timely information.

Other Important Information Products (4)

Service name: Other Information Updates

Various information updates available on the Web site provide year-round news that includes fiscal, economic, transfer, debt service and securities information, facts about financial institutions and their running and reform, as well as all relevant changes in which Finance plays an important role for such programs as employment insurance (EI) and the Canada Pension Plan. Web links to line departments running programs such as EI are in place.

This information has been provided free on-line since the launch of the Department’s Web site in 1994. No changes to this information source are planned, but it is part of the process of continual upgrades outlined above.

Clients are businesses, academics, news media, students and Canadians in general. The chief client benefit sought is ease of access to timely information.

Finance Legislation (5)

Service name: Finance Legislation Information

Finance drives a large part of Parliament’s legislative agenda and information about Finance legislation at all stages from draft to final, as well as regulatory information, is available either directly on the Finance Web site, or through links to Parliament’s site.

This information has been provided free on-line at a single location on the Finance Web site since the launch of the Department’s upgraded site in the spring of 2001.

No changes to this information source are planned, but it is part of the process of continual upgrades outlined above.

Clients are primarily businesses, accountants and tax specialists, but can also include other interested Canadians and news media. The chief client benefit sought is ease of access to timely information.

Available on this Web site: In English, http://www.fin.gc.ca/access/leg-e.html; in French, http://www.fin.gc.ca/access/leg-f.html.

Consultations (6)

Service name: Consultations Information

Finance has been using its Web site to support consultation of various publics for years, and the launch of its new Web site in the spring of 2001 consolidated these initiatives in a single location. The site has supported initiatives involving, for example, tariffs, and trade in financial services. Many of these initiatives are in coordination with other departments and agencies and supported by appropriate Web links. Although these consultation services are already delivered electronically, consideration is being given to upgrades that will enable consultation initiatives more advanced than just e-publication and email/phone/surface-mail responses.

This information has been provided free on-line at a single location on the Finance Web site since the launch of the Department’s upgraded site in the spring of 2001.

This information source will evolve in response to demand, both internal and external.

Clients are primarily businesses, accountants and tax specialists, but can also include other interested Canadians and news media. The chief client benefit sought is ease of access to timely information and ability to be heard.

Available on this Web site: In English, http://www.fin.gc.ca/activty/consult_e.html; in French, http://www.fin.gc.ca/activty/consult_f.html.