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Canada

User-Friendly Open Government (CA0064)

Overview

At-a-Glance

Action Plan: Canada Action Plan 2018-2020

Action Plan Cycle: 2018

Status: Active

Institutions

Lead Institution: Canada School of Public Service (CSPS); Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC); Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)’s Federal Geospatial Program (FGP); Statistics Canada (StatCan); Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS); other departments and agencies across the Government of Canada

Support Institution(s): NA

Policy Areas

Access to Information, Capacity Building, E-Government, Open Data, Public Participation

IRM Review

IRM Report: Canada Design Report 2018-2020

Starred: Pending IRM Review

Early Results: Pending IRM Review

Design i

Verifiable: Yes

Relevant to OGP Values: Access to Information , Civic Participation , Technology

Potential Impact:

Implementation i

Completion: Pending IRM Review

Description

1. User-friendly open government
Issue to be addressed
Canadians want their government to reflect the values of transparency, accountability, and
citizen participation in all of its work. To do this, the Government of Canada needs to put
citizens at the centre of its open government efforts. The more Canadians know about and
understand the work government does, and the more they are able to actively participate in it,
the more we can all harness the social and economic potential of open government.
Commitment
The Government of Canada will provide opportunities for Canadians to learn about open
government. We will also improve the openness of federal government data. We will:
• make improvements to open.canada.ca
• help Canadians learn more about Government of Canada work on open government
• improve the quality of open data available through open.canada.ca
• expand the Open by Default pilot project
• provide tools for government and citizens to work together
• develop open data privacy guidelines
Lead department(s)
Canada School of Public Service (CSPS); Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC);
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)’s Federal Geospatial Program (FGP); Statistics Canada
(StatCan); Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS); other departments and agencies across
the Government of Canada
Milestones
What will we do? How we will know we succeeded? What is our
deadline?
1.1 Make improvements to
open.canada.ca to make it
easier for users to find what
they’re looking for and
contribute to the open
government community
(TBS)
Pilot launched for users to submit
datasets, visualizations, and reports
based on open government data or
information
At least 20 usersubmitted
records available
by June 2020
Space provided on open.canada.ca for
stories of open data impact, including
user-submitted stories
At least
50 stories
15
What will we do? How we will know we succeeded? What is our
deadline?
available by
June 2019
Quarterly reporting on progress on
releasing datasets submitted via the
Suggest a Dataset form on
open.canada.ca
December 2018
Regular public reporting on
improvements, user research and
feedback on open.canada.ca, including on
top task success rates
June 2020
1.2 Help Canadians learn about
Canada’s work on open
government through learning
materials, information
sessions, and enhanced
training for public servants
(CSPS/TBS)
Materials for teachers and educators
drafted and published
June 2019
Outreach to at least 50 teachers or
educators to encourage them to review
and use these materials
March 2020
70% of teachers using the material are
satisfied with it
March 2020
At least 300 public servants from at least
15 Government of Canada departments
or agencies trained through learning
activities indicate a better understanding
of open government following the
learning activity
June 2020
A Government of Canada Digital Academy
is established, and at least 40 nominated
participants complete its premium course
curriculum3
August 2019
3 workshop events are held to train
federal public servants on employing
administrative data in decision-making
June 2020 What will we do? How we will know we succeeded? What is our
deadline?
Public open government and open data
webinars are held at least every 2 months
6 held by
October 2019
12 held by
June 2020
Participants are happy with webinar
content and format (at least 70%
satisfaction measured by a short survey
after each webinar)
June 2020
1.3 Improve the quality of open
data available on
open.canada.ca
(NRCan/StatCan/TBS)
Data quality criteria developed and
published, and workshops are held with
government officials to develop their
capacity to improve quality of datasets
June 2019
A new data quality rating system to
supplement current “Rate this dataset”
function is developed in consultation with
users and national partners and available
on open.canada.ca
June 2020
200 frequently downloaded datasets are
reviewed for quality,
4 standardization,
complete metadata, contextual
documentation, and plain language
descriptions
June 2020
An additional 500 geospatial datasets
reviewed using the Federal Geospatial
Platform (FGP) data quality assessment
criteria from NRCan
June 2020
1.4 Expand the Open by
Default pilot to make working
documents from government
officials open by default,
subject to applicable
Open by Default pilot is expanded to
capture working documents produced by
the Open Government team at TBS
June 2019
New innovative technologies are
implemented to improve accessibility and
April 2020

4. Data quality may include things like relevance, accuracy, timeliness, accessibility, interpretability, and
coherence. For more information, check out the Government of Canada’s Policy on Informing Users of Data Quality
and Methodology.
17
What will we do? How we will know we succeeded? What is our
deadline?
restrictions associated with
privacy, confidentiality, and
security
(TBS)
availability of documents in both official
languages in order to comply with the
Official Languages Act, the Treasury
Board Policy on Official Languages, and
the Standard on Web Accessibility
A subset of working documents produced
by at least 3 government departments, in
addition to the Open Government team
at TBS, is available through the Open by
Default portal
June 2020
1.5 Co-create a public, digital
collaboration space where
citizens and government
employees can work together
(TBS)
A public, digital collaboration space is
launched, and made available for
Canadians and government officials to
use. The collaboration space will:
• allow users to register with a single,
easy-to-use sign-in
• allow Canadians and government
officials to share files, work
collaboratively, and participate in
community discussions
June 2019
1.6 Develop open data
guidelines to protect the
privacy of citizens, businesses,
and institutions
(StatCan)
A series of workshops is delivered by
Statistics Canada to train participants on
the application of guidelines for the
anonymization of datasets
June 2019
1.7 Help Canadians understand
the data and models used to
design and study government
programs
(ESDC)
Microsimulation models, including
underlying datasets, results and
supporting documents, are made publicly
available to help to explain how the
government uses these models to design
programs and to estimate their impacts
December 2019
and ongoing

IRM Midterm Status Summary

1. User-friendly open government

The Government of Canada will provide opportunities for Canadians to learn about open government. We will also improve the openness of federal government data. We will:

  • make improvements to canada.ca
  • help Canadians learn more about Government of Canada work on open government
  • improve the quality of open data available through canada.ca
  • expand the Open by Default pilot project
  • provide tools for government and citizens to work together
  • develop open data privacy guidelines

Milestones

1.1 Make improvements to open.canada.ca to make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for and contribute to the open government community (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)

1.2 Help Canadians learn about Canada’s work on open government through learning materials, information sessions, and enhanced training for public servants (Canada School of Public Service/Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)

1.3 Improve the quality of open data available on open.canada.ca (Natural Resources Canada/ Statistics Canada/Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)

1.4 Expand the Open by Default pilot to make working documents from government officials open by default, subject to applicable restrictions associated with privacy, confidentiality, and security (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)

1.5 Co-create a public, digital collaboration space where citizens and government employees can work together (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)

1.6 Develop open data guidelines to protect the privacy of citizens, businesses, and institutions (Statistics Canada)

1.7 Help Canadians understand the data and models used to design and study government programs (Employment and Social Development Canada)

For more details about the commitment text, milestones, self-identified success criteria, and estimated completion dates see, https://open.canada.ca/en/content/canadas-2018-2020-national-action-plan-open-government#toc3-4

Start Date: August 2019

End Date: Varies according to milestone

Commitment Overview

Verifiability

OGP Value Relevance (as written)

Potential Impact

Completion

Did It Open Government?

Not specific enough to be verifiable

Specific enough to be verifiable

Access to Information

Civic Participation

Public Accountability

Technology & Innovation for Transparency & Accountability

None

Minor

Moderate

Transformative

Not Started

Limited

Substantial

Completed

Worsened

Did Not Change

Marginal

Major

Outstanding

1. Overall

✔

✔

✔

✔

✔

Assessed at the end of action plan cycle.

Assessed at the end of action plan cycle.

Context and Objectives

This commitment focuses on educating Canadians about openness and the opportunities it affords, and at making it easier for citizens to find high quality data and information resources about government activities. The commitment sets out a series of broad measures to facilitate moving forward with openness on two fronts. First, to enhance existing, and foster new, opportunities for Canadians to learn about open government and to work with the federal government. Second, to continue building on advancements from the three previous action plans toward improving the quality of open data the GoC makes available. Seeking to educate Canadians about open government is a commendable objective. However, as written, Commitment 1 is solution-oriented and aspirational in scope. Neither the current state of affairs prior to its launch vis-à-vis Canadian’s knowledge of open government nor the targeted change that is meant to emerge from its implementation are specified.

This commitment aligns with the OGP values of Access to Information, Civic Participation, and Technology and Innovation. However, the extent to which the milestones align with OGP values is mixed. Milestones 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5 are directly relevant to the OGP values of Access to Information, Civic Participation, Technology and Innovation, or combinations thereof. The proposed improvements to open.canada.ca and the expanding of the Open by Default pilot contribute to improving access to information and facilitating civic participation insofar as they offer increased opportunities for providing user feedback, with government making increased levels of datum and documentation available to interested parties. Likewise, the proposed digital collaboration space – the GCCollab [1] and GCmessage [2] open software tools – offers opportunities for information sharing, public participation, and collaboration. [3] Milestones 1.2, 1.6 and 1.7 pertain foremost to providing information and learning opportunities about government activities and the implementing of government guidelines. Based on the value definitions provided by in the IRM Procedures Manual, it is unclear how they align with any of the four OGP values. [4] This said, the IRM researcher acknowledges that the educational opportunities afforded by these three milestones can potentially enable interested parties to engage with and monitor Canada’s progress in moving toward open government.

For Commitment 1, there is a link between the objective of educating Canadians about the work government does and its open government efforts, and the seven milestones set out for realizing this goal. Milestones 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 are easily verifiable (i.e., either the proposed activity or change has taken place, or it has not) whereas Milestones 1.1, 1.2, and 1.7 require some degree of interpretation with regard to their measurability. Likewise, the validity of success criteria for all the milestones is subject question (i.e., do they actually measure/reflect what they claim to measure?). This is due, in part, to the fact that the success criteria for Milestones 1.1, 1.2 and 1.7 offer no indication of the measures to be used to evaluate whether users of open.canada.ca actually find it easier to locate and uncover “what they’re looking for and contribute to the open government community” and whether Canadians have learned about the country’s work on open government or “understand the data and models sued to design and study government programs.” The public comments received about the draft commitment identified specific issues whose resolution could have served to inform the creation of more precise indicators of success for milestones 1.1 and 1.2. For example, comments received from Jury Konga, Executive Director of the GO Open Data Association, and others, suggested that the chief improvement needed to make it easier for users to find what they are looking for at open.canada.ca is to have the platform indexed and fully searchable. [5]

In sum, Commitment 1 appears to be anchored in the notion that, the more Canadians learn about open government, the more they will use open government data and engage with government. Much weight is placed on delivering information, reports, analyses, making it easier for users to engage with open data and open government, as well as on government-led training. The impact of this commitment is tempered by this solution-centric orientation. [6] Nonetheless, it does constitute an incremental, positive step in working toward providing opportunities for Canadians to learn about open government, and for improving the openness of federal government data. Hence, Commitment 1 is assessed as having a minor potential impact.

Next steps

Commitment 1 is illustrative of an important and necessary open government initiative. Educating Canadians about open government and improving the quality of openness are laudable ongoing processes. However, the link between the commitment, the milestones, and the proposed success criteria – some of which appear to be milestones in their own right – is vague. Avoiding the pitfalls of data determinism requires being cautious not to overestimate citizens’ desires and motivations for engaging with government data and with government itself. Opening government data is not a ‘one size fits all’ proposition. Different stakeholders have very different data and information needs, and very different motivations for engaging with such resources. The government-citizen dialogue at the core of this commitment needs to be operationalized as an ongoing iterative process that both complements and extends beyond Canada’s OGP action plan.

The IRM researcher recommends that in moving forward lead departments and agencies strive to:

  • identify and tackle specific challenges/issues/priorities that can be addressed by improving the openness and quality of federal government data as opposed to starting from a position of ‘how can we provide opportunities for Canadians to learn about open government?’;
  • ensure the validity of the success indicators being used to assess/measure the success of the milestones, and the commitment more broadly;
  • enhance opportunities for consulting and engaging directly with citizens and civil society interests about their respective user needs, educational and otherwise, with regard to open government; and
  • establish and implement internal monitoring and evaluation practices to ensure the user feedback obtained is incorporated into the design, implementation, and outputs of the planned activities.
[1] GCcollab is an open software based collaborative and networking platform for federal employees as well as students and academics of select post-secondary institutions. See, https://gccollab.ca/faq
[2] GCmessage is an instant messaging application that enables users to connect with each other through a Web browser or mobile application (iOS and Android), with the ability to send direct messages and create private or public group-chats. It uses the same account service as GCcollab. See, What is GCMessage? https://gccollab.gctools-outilsgc.ca/en/support/solutions/articles/2100037287-what-is-gcmessage-
[3] As of October 1, 2019 GCcollab had some 62923 registered members, of which approximately one half were non-government actors and citizens. See, GCcollab Statistics, https://gccollab.ca/stats
[4] The IRM Procedures Manual (2017) specifies that the value of Access to Information pertains to, “government-held information, as opposed to only information on government activities. As an example, releasing government-held information on pollution would be clearly relevant, although the information is not about “government activity” per se;” See, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IRM-Procedures-Manual-v4_Sept2017.docx
[6] This view also as was expressed by in comments received from members of civil society when a draft of the commitment was posted online for public comment via Google Docs in July and August 2018. See, https://docs.google.com/document/d/16TwaU1BcnKY4W93tkPaJVjsQUt5pfkAEPFGDcjun6ms/edit

Commitments

  1. User-Friendly Open Government

    CA0064, 2018, Access to Information

  2. Financial Transparency and Accountability

    CA0065, 2018, Access to Information

  3. Corporate Transparency

    CA0066, 2018, Anti-Corruption

  4. Digital Government and Services

    CA0067, 2018, Automated Decision-Making

  5. Open Science

    CA0068, 2018, Access to Information

  6. Healthy Democracy

    CA0069, 2018, Anti-Corruption

  7. Access to Information

    CA0070, 2018, Access to Information

  8. Feminist and Inclusive Dialogue

    CA0071, 2018, Capacity Building

  9. Reconciliation and Open Government

    CA0072, 2018, Access to Information

  10. Open Government Community

    CA0073, 2018, Access to Information

  11. Enhance Access to Information

    CA0042, 2016, Access to Information

  12. Streamline Requests for Personal Information

    CA0043, 2016, E-Government

  13. Expand and Improve Open Data

    CA0044, 2016, Access to Information

  14. Provide and Preserve Open Information

    CA0045, 2016, E-Government

  15. Define an Approach for Measuring Open Government Performance

    CA0046, 2016, Capacity Building

  16. Develop Open Government Skills Across the Federal Public Service

    CA0047, 2016, Access to Information

  17. Embed Transparency Requirements in the Federal Service Strategy

    CA0048, 2016, Capacity Building

  18. Enhance Access to Culture & Heritage Collections

    CA0049, 2016, Capacity Building

  19. Enhance Openness of Information on Government Spending and Procurement

    CA0050, 2016, Capacity Building

  20. Increase Transparency of Budget and Other Department of Finance Information

    CA0051, 2016, Capacity Building

  21. Starred commitment Increase Transparency of Grants and Contributions Funding

    CA0052, 2016, Capacity Building

  22. Improve Public Information on Canadian Corporations

    CA0053, 2016, E-Government

  23. Increase the Availability and Usability of Geospatial Data

    CA0054, 2016, Access to Information

  24. Increase Openness of Federal Science Activities (Open Science)

    CA0055, 2016, Capacity Building

  25. Stimulate Innovation through Canada’s Open Data Exchange (ODX)

    CA0056, 2016, Access to Information

  26. Align Open Data Across Canada (Open Data Canada)

    CA0057, 2016, Access to Information

  27. Implement the Extractives Sector Transparency Measures Act

    CA0058, 2016, Anti-Corruption

  28. Support Openness and Transparency Initiatives Around the World

    CA0059, 2016, Access to Information

  29. Engage Civil Society on Open Government

    CA0060, 2016, Public Participation

  30. Enable Open Dialogue and Open Policy Making

    CA0061, 2016, Capacity Building

  31. Promote Open Government Globally

    CA0062, 2016, Access to Information

  32. Engage Canadians to Improve Key Canada Revenue Agency Services

    CA0063, 2016, Access to Information

  33. Implement Directive on Open Government

    CA0030, 2014, Access to Information

  34. Starred commitment Open Data Canada

    CA0031, 2014, Access to Information

  35. Canadian Open Data Exchange (ODX)

    CA0032, 2014, Access to Information

  36. Open Data for Development

    CA0033, 2014, Access to Information

  37. Open Data Core Commitment

    CA0034, 2014, Access to Information

  38. Starred commitment Open Science

    CA0035, 2014, Public Participation

  39. Starred commitment Mandatory Reporting on Extractives

    CA0036, 2014, Anti-Corruption

  40. Open Contracting

    CA0037, 2014, Anti-Corruption

  41. Open Information on Budgets and Expenditures

    CA0038, 2014, Fiscal Openness

  42. Digital Literacy

    CA0039, 2014, Capacity Building

  43. Open Information Core Commitment

    CA0040, 2014, Access to Information

  44. Consulting Canadians

    CA0041, 2014, Marginalized Communities

  45. Starred commitment International Aid Transparency Initiative: Publish Plan to Make CIDA Activities Available and Accessible

    CA0010, 2012, Aid

  46. International Aid Transparency Initiative: Implement Plan

    CA0011, 2012, Aid

  47. Opening Government of Canada Records: Increase Access to Archived Federal Documents at Library and Archives Canada

    CA0012, 2012, Records Management

  48. Opening Government of Canada Records: Issue New Mandatory Policy on Document Classification

    CA0013, 2012, Records Management

  49. Opening Government of Canada Records: Make Classified Information Available Online

    CA0014, 2012, E-Government

  50. GCDOCS: Deploy Wave One of Electronic Record and Document Management Solution

    CA0015, 2012, E-Government

  51. GCDOCS: Deploy Across Federal Government

    CA0016, 2012, E-Government

  52. GCWEB: Develop Consolidated Web Presence

    CA0017, 2012, E-Government

  53. GCWEB: Implement New Platform

    CA0018, 2012, E-Government

  54. Data.Gc.Ca: Expand Number of Datasets Available

    CA0019, 2012, Access to Information

  55. Data.Gc.Ca: Implement Data.Gc.Ca Portal

    CA0020, 2012, Access to Information

  56. Data.Gc.Ca: Improve Standardization of Data

    CA0021, 2012, Access to Information

  57. Government of Canada Resource Management Data: Publish Resource Management and Performance Data

    CA0022, 2012, Access to Information

  58. Government of Canada Resource Management Data: Enhance Search and Data Tools

    CA0023, 2012, Access to Information

  59. Consulting Canadians: Develop New Platform for Consultation

    CA0024, 2012, E-Government

  60. Consulting Canadians: Develop Standard Approach to Use of Social Media

    CA0025, 2012, E-Government

  61. Consulting Canadians: Pilot a Crowdsourcing Initiative

    CA0026, 2012, E-Government

  62. Consulting Canadians: Enable Use of Common Online Tools

    CA0027, 2012, E-Government

  63. Open Regulation: Federal Regulators to Post Forward Regulatory Plans

    CA0028, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  64. Open Regulation: Simplify Engagement Activities

    CA0029, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  65. Open Government Directive: Issue Directive on Open Government

    CA0001, 2012, E-Government

  66. Open Government Directive: Implement Directive on Open Government

    CA0002, 2012, E-Government

  67. Starred commitment Open Government Licence: Issue Open Government Licence

    CA0003, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  68. Starred commitment Open Government Licence: Adopt Open Government Licence

    CA0004, 2012,

  69. Modernising Administration of Access to Information: Pilot of Online Request and Payment Service

    CA0005, 2012, Access to Information

  70. Modernising Administration of Access to Information: Implement ATI Solution

    CA0006, 2012, Access to Information

  71. Modernising Administration of Access to Information: Make Completed ATI Request Summaries Searchable

    CA0007, 2012, Access to Information

  72. Virtual Library: Begin Design of Virtual Library

    CA0008, 2012, E-Government

  73. Virtual Library: Launch Virtual Library

    CA0009, 2012, E-Government

Open Government Partnership