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Information Management in the Government of Canada - A Situation Analysis
Information is the fuel driving government programs and services. In Canada's
knowledge-based society the quality, integrity and ongoing accessibility of information,
including that produced in the public sector, is crucial. As the government moves towards
the electronic web-enabled delivery of its programs and services significant opportunities
will emerge to enhance the ability of Canadians to access government information and move
beyond traditional ways of locating, accessing, and retrieving government information.
Innovative approaches to ensuring the authenticity, integrity, and reliability of
information, especially personal information, for as long as the information is required
are also possible but only if "out-of-the-box" thinking is used to fully lever
what the emerging technologies have to offer. To make this vision a reality, government
will have to create a culture across the public service which values information and the
role it plays in supporting a citizen-state interaction founded on trust and respect.
In an increasingly electronic environment, however, the ability of the government to
create, use and preserve information effectively to support decision-making,
program/service delivery, and accountability is being challenged. Getting the right
information (regardless of its physical form) to the right person or persons, at the right
time, in the right form and format, at a reasonable cost is a generally accepted principle
that is becoming difficult to operationalize.
The challenge to government is in articulating the IM issues and recommendations such
that they can be understood within a relevant and clearly understood context. An
Information Management Infrastructure is described in the Report to give expression to
that context. The infrastructure is based on a citizen-centered business view of
government where it is recognized that the products of government programs and activities
(as generated through defined business processes) are nearly always in the form of
information which itself may be recorded in a variety of physical forms - from paper (e.g.
a license) to electronic (e.g. the results of statistical analysis reported on a computer
screen). According to the proposed infrastructure, three types of activities are performed
on information regardless of its physical form - "creation", "use",
and "preservation", each of which (and in combination) is supported by an
infrastructure of laws and policies, standards and practices, systems, and people
encapsulated within a framework of enhanced awareness and assigned accountability.
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