Canadian minister signals push for cybersecurity and digital credentials
The minister overseeing Canada’s digital government policies set out her focus on cybersecurity, training and digital credentials yesterday, in a speech given to welcome delegates to Global Government Forum’s AccelerateGOV conference in Ottawa.
Anita Anand MP, president of the Treasury Board and – since last month – minister of transport, told attendees at the conference that it is “so exciting to be at the forefront of innovation, and that’s what I feel every day in overseeing the government’s implementation of our digital strategy”.
Anand told the audience: “Your work is necessary for us to move to that new day when government services are completely digitised and we are able to operate more efficiently as a result.”
She also thanked public servants “for the work that you do every day for this country”.
Three pillars of transformation
In her remarks, Anand said that she broke down thinking about government transformation as three things. “We need to talk about people, we need to talk about policy, and we need to talk about the accompanying technology,” she explained.
To boost digital capabilities, Anand said the government has created an online application process allowing digital professionals to apply for jobs across the federal agencies. The platform now has 23,000 active applicant profiles, of whom 75% are not currently public servants. Additionally, 830 have now passed the pre-qualification stage and “are ready to be paired up with digital opportunities across government”.
Elsewhere in her speech, Anand warned the audience of public servants from Canada and overseas that “it is insufficient for each and every government department to have its own way of addressing cyber-attacks and cyber threats”.
Her team is working on “an enterprise strategy for the entire government to further enhance our cyber protection”, she said, adding that the Treasury Board will also be launching an initiative to retrain public servants in cyber roles.
Read more: Government CIO discusses how Canada is making progress on digital transformation
Digital credentials
Another key digital policy and technology development involves pushing forward with a national digital credentials system, the minister explained. “Everybody in our country who interacts with the federal government wants to have one point of contact,” she said. “We all find that it is cumbersome and inefficient to continually provide the same information.”
With C$11m (£6m) allocated to the programme this year, Anand said the Treasury Board is working “to get this initiative off the ground, to ensure that digital credentials ‘one-stop shopping’ is possible for the population of our country”.
AccelerateGOV 2024
The AccelerateGOV conference brought together Canadian officials with an interest in innovation and digital services, and senior digital leaders from around the world. After introductions by Canadian chief data officer Stephen Burt and chief information officer Dominic Rochon, the day saw a series of panel discussions and keynotes with figures including Yuriy Matsyk of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and Mark Schaan, Canada’s deputy secretary to the Cabinet – artificial intelligence.
Today, top digital leaders from 24 countries are meeting in Ottawa at the Global Government Digital Summit, which provides a safe space for discussion of the challenges they face in common.
The conference is supported by platinum knowledge partners AffinitiQuest and IBM, and gold knowledge partners AWS, Blueprint, Commvault, Converge, Intel, Dell Technologies, SAS, Workday, and Qualtrics. A full list of knowledge partners can be viewed here, and keep an eye on www.globalgovernmentforum.com for updates from the event.
About Matt Ross
Matt is Global Government Forum's Contributing Editor, providing direction and support on topics, products and audience interests across GGF’s editorial, events and research operations. He has been a journalist and editor since 1995, beginning in motoring and travel journalism – and combining the two in a 30-month, 30-country 4x4 expedition funded by magazine photo-journalism. Between 2002 and 2008 he was Features Editor of Haymarket news magazine Regeneration & Renewal, covering urban regeneration, economic growth and community development; and from 2008 to 2014 he was the Editor of UK magazine and website Civil Service World, then Editorial Director for Public Sector – both at political publishing house Dods. He has also worked as Director of Communications at think tank the Institute for Government.
Related Posts
