A Digital-First Canada and Build Capacity as Centres of Expertise
Canadian Government Executive
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A Note From Our Deputy Editor
Welcome to your CGE newsletter!
It is an eventful week in Ottawa.?Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, Katie Telford, will appear before the Procedure and House Affairs Committee on the matter of foreign interference in Canadian elections. This will be a much-anticipated exchange. Initially, the Liberals filibustered to block her appearance, but she agreed to appear last month when tensions between the parties came to a boil.
This is certainly not Ms. Telford’s first appearance before a parliamentary committee, but the fact that she – and not the Prime Minister himself – will be the one appearing has prompted a broader conversation about the implications of political staffers testifying before committee. What does this mean for the constitutional convention of ministerial responsibility? Why is she, and not Prime Minister Trudeau, the one to speak to the committee? Ministers are accountable to the House of Commons and must answer questions, both oral and written, on the matters that arise in their portfolios. Ms. Telford will be asked questions about what the Prime Minister’s Office knew and when with respect to allegations of foreign interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections. She will be asked whether the PMO has tried to cover up attempts at interference that could benefit them. It is unlikely that she will say anything that has not been said before, which will then likely prompt the opposition parties to call for the Prime Minister’s testimony – which has been the appropriate course of action all along. So, Ms. Telford’s appearance does not change anything with respect to the application of ministerial responsibility – but it could make for some interesting political theatre.
Elevating Government Services for a Digital-First Canada
The past two years have put digital government services in the spotlight like never before.
As Canadians adapted to working and learning from home, accessing government services online went from a convenience to a necessity, marking a significant shift in how Canadians engaged with their governments.
As we emerge from the pandemic, we wanted to better understand this shift and assess what it means for governments and citizens going forward. To do this, we surveyed 1,500 Canadians across the country to find out how they’ve used digital government services, what their experience has been like, and what their expectations are going forward.
https://canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca/elevating-government-services-for-a-digital-first-canada/?inf_contact_key=15950e5fe451480ddab39fe214774f9909c74070ac2bf3cfa7869e3cfd4ff832
Build capacity as centres of expertise
In the new organization, power flows from expertise, not position. ? THOMAS A. STEWART
Governments must adapt to increasingly complex globalization, technological, demographic, and fiscal forces. The effects motivate new, often creative, approaches to public policy and administration. Canadian governments take bold steps everyday to institutionalize the capacity to innovate.
Latest Podcasts
From Cloud First to Cloud Smart
Join host J. Richard Jones for the latest episode of CGE Radio. He speaks with Craig McLellan, Chief Executive Officer of ThinkOn, about foreign cloud providers and the benefits of a Canadian-based solution. Mr. McLellan is a forward-thinking business leader who has been at the forefront of technology innovation and data security in Canada and the U.S. for the past twenty-five years. Think On, Inc. is a proudly Canadian-owned and operated cloud solution provider (CSP) with a global data centre footprint. ThinkOn is a Canadian VMware Sovereign Cloud partner and the only Canadian supplier with the contractual capability to sell cloud-based data management services to support both Federal Government Sensitive (PBMM) workloads as well as workloads from all levels of municipal, federal, and Indigenous government public sector entities in Canada.
In this episode:
CGE Weekly – episode 10: The Canadian Budget
Welcome back to another episode of CGE Weekly with host, J. Richard Jones. This week, CGE editor-in-chief, Dr. Lori Turnbull, weighs in on the new budget that came down on March 28th. As the cost of living rises and the Bank of Canada works to manage inflation, just what does this budget hold for you? We touch on everything from health care to the GST rebate and everything in between.
Also in this episode:
Upcoming Event
CANADIAN GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP SERIES:
Government Contracting and the Role of Public Sector
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates has been studying the outsourcing of government contracts to private consulting firms. A study by Carleton University has revealed that the federal government spent at least $22 billion on outsourcing in 2021-22. McKinsey and Company got a lot of the attention, as federal government contracts with this company have grown since the Liberals formed government in 2015, but many consulting companies are in a similar situation. We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Amanda Clarke, associate professor at Carleton University and expert on government contracts, and Mr. Michael Wernick, former Clerk of the Privy Council, to speak to this very important issue and the implications for the role of the public service.
DATE: May 2, 2023
TIME: 1:00 – 5:00 pm (EST)
From the Web
Why regulators in Canada and Italy are digging into ChatGPT's use of personal information
OpenAI's chatbot is trained using data scraped from the open web
As governments rush to address concerns about the rapidly-advancing generative artificial intelligence industry, experts in the field say greater oversight is needed over what data is used to train the systems.
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