Next steps for government transformation: Canada’s digital leaders issue a call to action
At a panel session featuring some of Canada’s top digital chiefs, the audience heard calls for public servants to go into ‘beast mode’ as they tackle the obstacles to reform
At the AccelerateGOV conference in Ottawa this week, digital leaders discussed the next steps for government transformation.
“I am challenging all of you to think about the things that are in your way,” Paul N Wagner, CEO of the Canadian Digital Service, told delegates during a panel session.
“Those things, I think you need to work through. Some of them really need to be dealt with at the highest level.”
Concerns about the effort or time required to promote reform, said Wagner, should not “limit our ambition about some of the big things we need to change, whether that’s around how we fund the process or fund initiatives, or the way we adopt the product management philosophy”.
Stephen Karam, president and CEO of Systemscope, a knowledge partner at the conference also called for new approaches. “We are in a bit of a mind trap: we need to start dropping the term ‘digital’ in digital transformation,” he said. “Because this isn’t just about digital, and that puts all the onus on digital leaders.”
Karam was making the point that every reform agenda in government today rests on the deployment of digital technologies. And to realise the power of today’s technologies, “you have to be committed”, he argued.
“This is not about simply dipping your toe in the water. If you commit yourself to the change – if you commit to thinking differently, to freeing yourself from the mind trap – then you can find new ways of doing things, new ways of collaborating,” he said.
Read more: Canadian minister signals push for cybersecurity and digital credentials
Storm the barriers to change
There is significant institutional inertia within the system, commented Scott Jones, president of Shared Services Canada. “A lot of people are still living 30 years ago, and don’t want to renegotiate that,” he said. His organisation aims to ensure that “anywhere, anytime, any location, you should be able to work together; to bring people together from all departments. There shouldn’t be any barriers.” Yet many organisations and senior leaders resist standardisation and common platforms well outside the limited fields in which differentiation is necessary in order to meet the public’s needs.
Dominic Rochon, Canada’s chief information officer, highlighted another barrier to change. “We have to address the significant amount of technical debt that we’ve accumulated,” he said. “We haven’t done a great amount of investment in our infrastructure, in our technology, and we’re paying for it.”
The solutions – as set out by Anita Anand MP, president of the Treasury Board, in the morning’s keynote – involve “a policy piece, a technology piece, and a people piece”, Rochon commented. “And I’ll add one other layer. We need to be able to figure out a way of partnering with the private sector, who will always be leading edge compared to government when it comes to technology, and of doing that transparently, seamlessly, in order to get to the vision of better serving Canadians.”
Read more: Government CIO discusses how Canada is making progress on digital transformation
War footing
Canadians have a lot to learn from overseas, Rochon added – and Karam highlighted the previous keynote speech by Yuriy Matsyk, a general director in Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation. When faced with the need to continue functioning and providing services in the face of the Russian invasion, Ukraine “went into beast mode when it came to transformation”, said Karam.
Now Canadian officials should do the same, he argued: “In order to not have this conversation 20 years from now, saying we’re going to do the same things, we need to get into beast mode. We need to do whatever it takes to remove barriers that are persistent.”
It’s time to deliver, agreed Wagner. “We have a leadership right now that is focused on action, as opposed to establishing a policy; coming up with the next strategy,” he said. “We’re making some changes. We’re not getting it right every time; sometimes you fall down. But it’s not Powerpoint presentations and arm-waving. What you’re seeing is action.”
Read more: AccelerateGOV 2024 as it happened
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.
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