• Table of Contents
• Government On-Line Chronicle
• Overarching Principles & Key Areas of Activities
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001
• 2000
• 1999
• Activities Preceding Government On-Line

Chronicle

2003

Highlights include improved functioning and take up of the Canada Site, a push to advance seamless government through inter-jurisdictional efforts, and the plea by the Government On-line Advisory Panel to shift to a larger agenda of service transformation across all channels.

The Canada site experiences a steep increase of 38% in visits from 2002 as clients claim usage of the expanded functionality range provided by the wireless portal. This portal gives access to services relevant to Web-enabled cellular phones and Personal Digital Assistants.

The client-centric approach is characterized by "to whom" the services are delivered not by "how or by whom". Consequently, inter-jurisdictional collaboration is key to seamless client-centred service delivery. The work done to further client-centricity in this regard starts bearing fruit as Government planners agree to lay out an incremental plan for inter-jurisdictional engagement, focusing first on hyper-linking, metadata, content management systems, and shared services.

The Government On-line Advisory Panel recognizes the challenges of delivering the most commonly-used services on line by 2005 but in its view,  " The federal government must build on the success of Government On-Line by implementing an integrated service delivery network that offers a similar quality of service over the Internet, on the phone, in person, or through the mail, and which operates seamlessly across different programs, departments and orders of government ". Although not a government on-line target, a multi-channel service delivery agenda gains in importance within the Treasury Board Secretariat.

Policy, Consultations and Human Resources

On the policy, standard and legislative front, the Management of Government Information Policy becomes effective in May. It requires departments to use electronic systems as the preferred means of creating, using, and managing information, and to assess the management of information throughout its life cycle. Standards on Information and Technology Security Management are drafted and emphasize compliance on aspects that build trust as security policies protect personal information held by departments and agencies.

Consultations on Canadians' expectations and priorities continue to guide every aspect of the Government On-line initiative. Since the results are widely shared with departments and agencies, research plays an important role in encouraging horizontality and building a more client-centred culture across the federal government. From the results of the Citizen First 3, it appears that more effort is needed to market e-services as awareness about their availability is low. However, these results are of particular interest as they support the hypothesis that electronic service delivery has the greatest potential to raise overall satisfaction with the service experience given that programs where a pronounced shift to Internet-based delivery has occurred since the original Citizen First in 1998 are the ones showing the steepest increases in satisfaction. Privacy and security continue to have a major impact on Canadians' willingness to conduct on-line transactions.

Progress has been made by the Organizational Readiness Office with the service delivery community co-coordinating departmental efforts to assemble a body of knowledge of proven service delivery practices, while the information technology community co-ordinates the interest of over a dozen departments to provide a shared e-Learning Gateway geared to training and development needs of information technology workers.

Other Government On-Line Milestones

• publication by Accenture of the eGovernment Leadership Report, "Engaging the Customer" where Canada rates first for the third year in a row, thanks to its continued commitment to deliver services in a client-centric fashion;
• tabling in Parliament of the "Government On-Line 2003" public report ;
• work started on the Business Transformation Enablement Program, a methodology to facilitate sustainable whole-of-government client or citizen-centred transformation, and to provide the design and alignment tools that will enable rapid changes;
• release of the United Nations World Public Sector Report 2003, "E-Government at a Crossroads" where Canada ranks sixth after the United States, Sweden, Australia, Denmark and the United Kingdom;
• transfer of the Government On-Line Project Management Office from the Treasury Board Secretariat to the Department of Public Works and Government Services following the reorganization of a number of federal departments and agencies; the responsibilities for policies and service transformation remain with the Board.

Related Events

• publication of Citizens First 3 by The Institute for Citizen Centred Service that provides fresh insights and comprehensive information on how citizens and clients of the Canadian public sector perceive the services they receive from governments at the municipal, provincial, territorial, and federal levels;
• update of the Common Measurement Tool to expand its use to a variety of service channels whereas the original tool focused on in-person service delivery;
• publication of the Auditor General's Report on Government On-Line that scrutinized planning, procedures, funding, and governance;
• development of an inter-jurisdictional engagement strategy in order to explore interoperability and service integration.