Help us Shape Canada’s Commitments to Open Government!

Version Française »

The Challenge: 6 weeks into the process and only 4 weeks left to shape plan!

Canada is currently drafting its fourth action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... on open government as part of its role in the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP). Action plans are a place where governments articulate concrete commitments intended to empower citizens, fight corruption, and strengthen governance.

In order to better engage citizens and civil society, Canada recently launched a Multi-stakeholder ForumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple... on Open Government (MSF). This forum aims to promote government-stakeholder dialogue on open government policies and to help ensure robust participation in Canada’s next action plan.

Meet the members of the MSF here.

Having just completed our first meeting on January 24th in Ottawa, we already face a challenge – an extremely tight timeline. The new plan is due in July. Given the time it takes to secure high level approval of ambitious reforms, this means that the time to engage is now.

With Canada set to chair the Open Government Partnership later this year, it is critical that the next action plan on open government be full of strong commitments, reflective of robust engagement. However, timing is tight and the MSF is new.

We need Canada to ‘step up.’ But what does this mean? How can we ensure commitments solve real problems? Empower Canadians? Improve transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More? Fight corruption? And improve governance?

To wrap our heads around this, we need you.

Emerging Themes

At the first meeting of the MSF we worked with government to develop a list of key themes upon which to engage Canadians:

• Open policy making
• Open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici...
• Open science
• Open heritage
• Financial transparency and accountability
• Beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... More
• Access to information reform
• Reconciliation and data sovereignty
• Data needs of the social and charitable sector
• Cities and urban development
• Entrepreneurship and innovation
• Inequality and inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More
• Open parliamentEnsuring access to legislative information and creating mechanisms for public participation are critical to building an open, trusting relationship with citizens. Technical specifications: Commitments... More
• Service delivery improvement
• Past commitments that could be rolled over into the next plan

Government is already planning events to engage Canadians around these topics. As civil society members working with Government on the Multi-Stakeholder Forum, we are mindful of the need to engage civil society more broadly. Many organizations and individuals have been and currently are doing amazing work on these themes, advancing civil society’s interests and it will be a poorer process without their voices being heard. Here are some opportunities to enrich the narrative:

• Workshop on the changing technological context of open data, March 7, 2018 – Calgary
• Roundtable on feminist Open Government, March 8, 2018 – Online
• Roundtable on inclusive policy making, March 15, 2018 – Online
• Roundtable on financial transparency and accountability, March 22, 2018 – Online

Registration for these events can be found here.

Are these the right themes, what else is important to you? What commitments would you like to see?

Are you or your organization able to help us form commitments?

• Register for an online discussion March 2 HERE
• Submit your ideas and join the open gov can mailing list HERE
• Link to Canada’s current action plan and the ideas section of the last consultation

by Claire Woodside, Jean-Noe´ Landry, Lindsey Marchessault, Michael Lenczner, Rob Davidson