Making government a `model user' of the InformationHighwayÐCanada's progress to date

RICHARD SIMPSON

Information Highway Advisory Council, Canada

SUMMARY

This account of recent developments in the information technology policies of Canada'sfederal government describes how the government, acting as a ``model user'' of IT, contributesto the effectiveness of strategies designed to achieve policy goals related to the development ofan information society. Government initiatives have applied information technology in re-engineering processes and procedures, which result in greatly improved performance, both ofinternal ``housekeeping'' operations, and service delivery to the public. In devising these andsimilar initiatives, it is necessary to select technologies that are appropriate to localcapabilities, rather than adopting ``technology-driven'' approaches to problem solving.(& 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

INTRODUCTION

Major developments are occurring in the Canadian federal government with regardto the modernization of public administration and the management of publicenterprises. This article reviews the most signi®cant of these. It also tries to positionIT use by government in the context of Canada's broader strategy for ITdevelopmentÐwhat is termed the Information Highway. The job of theInformation Highway Advisory Council is to assist development of an overallstrategy to further the deployment of communications and information technologieswithin Canadian society as a whole, affecting the private sector as well as the publicdomain. These are areas where government, acting as a model user of IT, cancontribute to the effectiveness of strategies designed to achieve broader public policygoals related to the development of an information society.In Canada, the deployment of information technologies takes place within a

general policy framework governing the evolution of the information society and theknowledge economy in Canada. Three major initiatives are currently de®ning thispolicy framework. The ®rst, which began more than a decade ago, comprises therevision and updating of communications legislation and the ongoing process ofliberalization of communications markets through policy and regulatory change.The second is the work of the Information Highway Advisory Council (IHAC), abody representing a broad range of Canadian interests, which has provided advice

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 17, 103±107 (1997)

CCC 0271±2075/97/010103±05$17.50& 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Richard Simpson is Executive Director Information Highway Advisory Council, 300 Slater Street,Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C8, Canada.

and guidance to the government on how to accelerate the development andimplementation of Canada's Information Highway. A ®nal part of the governmentplan is the development and articulation of an overall national strategy for theInformation Highway that responds to IHAC recommendations and that builds onrecent innovations in communications policies and other government measures andprogrammes.

GOVERNMENT AS `MODEL USER'

As a national strategy for the development of Canada's Information Highway hasevolved and matured, the important role of government as a `Model User' ofadvanced information technologies has received increasing attention. As noted inIHAC's September 1995 Report, the adoption of IT by government can stimulate itsdiffusion throughout the economy and help ensure citizens can realize the full socialand economic bene®ts of the Information Highway. This has resulted in a series ofCanadian government initiatives designed to accelerate the use of IT for improvingboth internal government operations and service delivery to the public.In 1994, after extensive consultations across the country, the government released

the Blueprint for Renewing Government Services Using Information Technology. Thisdocument sets forth a vision of more `affordable, accessible, and responsive'government services and provides a practical approach to harnessing enablingtechnology to achieve the vision. Many departments and their managers and staffshave since adopted the Blueprint as a guide for re-engineering their services andadministrative processes. The extent to which the federal government has come torely on the enabling power of information technology is evident in the number andscope of government services that have been transformed using this technology.Some examples can serve to illustrate the progress achieved in this area.

INNOVATIONS IN SERVICE DELIVERY

Many Canadians are now able to ®le their tax returns electronically. The federal jobbank listing current employment opportunities across the country is accessiblethrough kiosks in many government of®ces and shopping malls. Canadianbusinesses can now access government contract opportunities through anelectronic bidding system, operated by the private sector at no cost to thegovernment. The income security programmes redesign is being implemented usingmodern technology to provide cost-effective and responsive services to recipients. Ahost of government information is available to Canadians on the Internet. Tosimplify access to this information, a primary government site on the Internet isbeing established.In December 1995, Public Works and Government Services established a primary

Internet site for the Government of Canada. The site contains general informationabout Canada and the federal government and provides users with direct links to theInternet sites of federal departments, agencies and institutions that have Internetfacilities. The site offers users convenient access to government Internet services by

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focusing their inquiries through a single window. Internet services of some 50departments and agencies are currently accessible and more will be added as they aredeveloped. For example, in March 1996, Industry Canada released Strategis, themost comprehensive source of on-line business information in Canada. Developed inpartnership with Canadian ®rms to meet Canadian needs, Strategis provides easyaccess to a broad range of information resources about markets, industry sectors,new technologies and products and services to help ®rms become more competitive,innovative and productive.Revenue Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Passport Of®ce,

in collaboration with US customs, will introduce an optical card programme, whichwill allow frequent Canada±US travellers to be processed through customs morerapidly by simply inserting their card in computer check points at major airports.The Federal Minister of Agriculture has endorsed a government strategy for the

agriculture and rural sector on the Information Highway developed by a Federal±Provincial Working Group. The Federal and Provincial Ministers of Agriculture willdiscuss a work plan to implement the strategy in 1996. At the present time,Agriculture Canada is conducting a pilot of the Canadian Rural Information Service(CRIS), a joint initiative of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (the Rural Secretariatand the Canadian Agriculture Library) to provide a clearing house of informationon rural Canada. Under development since December 1994, CRIS will provideinformation through the Internet and more traditional means of access. CRIS willalso have a World Wide Web (WORLD WIDE WEB WWW)) site and will becomplementary to C*Net. Provision of information through CRIS will includeprogrammes and services, access to capital, success stories and ideas, and where toseek expert advice and assistance.Natural Resources Canada will play a key role in the development of a Canadian

Spatial Data Infrastructure, using the Information Highway to facilitate publicaccess to Digital Georeferenced Data concerning our natural resources, as well as thegeographical aspect of our environmental, economic, social and political issues, incooperation with other federal Ministers, provincial governments, and the Inter-Agency Committee on geomatics, industry and universities.Canada's Community Access and SchoolNet programmes will work with

provincial government support to use educational institutions, libraries andcommunity centres as sites for the distribution of electronic information includingthe delivery of government services.These and other innovations have been pursued with heavy involvement of the

private sector in supplying solutions, expertise and indeed, in many cases, investmentcapital.

GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

Renewal of internal administration

There have been considerable efforts in common administrative areas acrossgovernment to reduce duplication, to re-engineer business processes, and to generallynurture amongst the federal employees the sense of sharing and participation critical

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for information-based renewal. For example, the Locally Shared Support Serviceinitiative has spawned some 250 projects across the country, involving thousands ofgovernment employees, to share administrative facilities and offer common servicesacross programmes and organizations. Departments are now sharing a variety ofcommon administrative computer applications. Procurement and payment and payand bene®ts processes that cut through a variety of administrative functions arebeing redesigned in an integrated fashion using enabling information concepts andmodern technology. In the banking and cash management ®eld, private sectorservices are being used progressively to establish automated systems to collect,process and transfer the millions of receipt and payment transactions that thegovernment handles each year. All these and similar activities will result inconsiderable savings for government as well as improved supporting capability forservice delivery.

Infrastructure development

Work is underway to further enhance the evolution of an enabling electronicinformation infrastructure for the public sector, by developing a `network ofnetworks' to interconnect departments and their operations government-wide. Thefederal government has already established one of the largest internal E-mail systemsfound anywhere in the world, linking together some 150,000 of its employees acrossthe country. Enhancements to this system now in progress will permit it to supportelectronic commerce and other mail-enabled applications. Departments are nowworking together to consolidate, streamline, and enhance their computer networkoperations and the electronic work (personal computers) environment forgovernment employees. A comprehensive information management/informationtechnology infrastructure services model has also been developed. The model, whichis consistent with the Blueprint, offers a guide to both the government and industryin developing and providing infrastructure services.Initiatives are also underway to ensure that the infrastructure meets the

government's social and operational objectives. Policy guidelines and applicationtools supporting information management, the protection of security, privacy, andequal access are being developed. These projects will facilitate the use of theInformation Highway, particularly the public networks, to deliver governmentinformation and services.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN GOVERNMENT AND THE NEED FOR`LOCAL SOLUTIONS'

As stated initially, these and other initiatives that are establishing the Government ofCanada as a `Model User' of information technology support a broader strategy fordeveloping the Information Highway in Canada. Apart from the broader publicpolicy goals, however, there are numerous reasons why the employment ofcommunications and information technologies makes perfect business sense forgovernmentsÐjudged purely in ®nancial and organizational terms related to its

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internal operations. In Canada, and elsewhere, technology has provided proven waysof delivering `more for less', and its contribution to more ef®cient and effectivepublic administration will undoubtedly continue in the future.Let me conclude by making one rather simple observation about the role of IT in

government, which again derives from my background in viewing the application ofIT in a wide variety of organizations, and in several sectors of the economyÐprivate,public and para-public (education, health). In all of these areas, you will ®nd manygood and bad examples of the use and performance of IT. More often than not,success is determined by the attentiveness given to `modelling the business' in whichthe organization is involved, in a manner that clearly identi®es the institutionalfunctions and needs which technology can address.For several years, I worked for a Commonwealth organization, the

Commonwealth of Learning, which was heavily involved in promoting theadoption and utilization of communications and information technologies in the®eld of education. The most successful and sustainable projects that we undertook atCOL were invariably those that derived from a de®nition of institutional/client needsto which a particular technology solution could be designed and/or adapted. Thislesson has special relevance to this Conference and its theme `Global ChallengesÐLocal Solutions', since it argues for an orientation toward technology that isadaptable to any level of development or resource capability.Experience with IT advances in commerce, health and other areasÐfrom both the

Canadian experience and internationally, has tended to reinforce the view that `localsolutions' that work usually depend on selecting the technologies that areappropriate to local capabilities and that can be mixed and matched to meet theneeds of the organization and its clients. Certainly the Canadian experience withexpanding the use of IT within government, and our `success stories' in this areasome of which have been outlined above, show the value of a more functional, lesstechnology-driven approach to problem solving.

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