End of Commitment Report – Improve digital public consultations.

Name of Evaluator

Open Government Committee

Email

gouvernement.ouvert@mcn.gouv.qc.ca

Member Name

Québec, Canada

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... Title

Action plan – Québec, Canada, 2021 – 2023

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

Improve digital public consultations.

Action

“Best practices and methodological tools will be made available to support public bodies when holding digital public consultations on the Consultation Québecplatform, in accordance with the guiding principles behind the Cadre de référence gouvernemental sur la participation publique. In addition, a process will be put in place to ensure the continuous improvement of public consultation exercises and to measure the level of citizen involvement.”

Problem

“Currently, two structural elements are available to public bodies:

• The Cadre de référence gouvernemental sur la participation publique [Public engagement framework], which provides seven guiding principles when holding consultations;
• The Consultation Québec platform, which brings together all of the government’s current public consultations in a single location to provide the public with a more user-friendly environment.

When holding their first public consultations in a digital environment, however, it is often difficult for public bodies to transpose the principles of the Cadre de référence into the new environment; support is therefore needed.”

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

Complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

A community of practice in public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... has been set up to encourage sharing and collaboration with public bodies. Tutorials and user guides are shared in this community.
A survey of user public bodies was carried out in the winter and spring 2022 to obtain feedback from these organizations. A number of recommendations were made and implemented. Public bodies now receive a model feedback form to include in their public consultations on the Consultation Québec platform.

Various presentations and activities to promote the platform have been carried out with public bodies. In 2021-2022, 17 consultations were held, representing a 70% increase over 2020-2021, when 10 public consultations were held on the Consultation Québec platform. The objective of achieving a 50% annual increase in the number of consultations has therefore been exceeded.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• Consultations’ statistics

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

Collaboration with the Secrétariat à la réforme des institutions démocratiques, à l’accès à l’information et à la laïcité de l’État has been a success factor in promoting the best participation practices proposed by the Cadre de référence gouvernemental sur la participation publique (government framework for public participation).

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

All of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The milestones were all reached as planned, with no delays or deviations from the plan.

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Marginal

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The achievements were aimed at improving the quality of public consultations implemented by the government, which is an important gateway for gathering information from the general public.

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Marginal

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Achievements were aimed at improving the quality of public consultations implemented by the government. In this respect, public bodies now receive a model feedback form to include in their public consultations on the Consultation Québec platform.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• Satisfaction survey

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

Although a great deal of content is shared with public bodies on best practices in public consultation, it can take a long time for these to fully mature. Surveying is a tried-and-true tool, and public participation more broadly requires that practices evolve. Change management is one of the main challenges in implementing open government.