Create a Department of Information Technology

If we're going to improve Canada's digital advantage and be a "…nation that creates, uses and supplies advanced digital technologies and content to improve productivity across all sectors," the government of Canada must be the leader.

A Department of IT headed by an elected Member of Parliament would ensure the inception and delivery of numerous key improvements to Canada's digital infrastructure and presence on the World Wide Web. The Department of IT's mandate should ensure that Canada's digital infrastructure and information and communication strategies and associated programs meet the needs of Canadians and the people with whom Canada does business.

Sector–wide leadership and advice is needed on providing support for development of e–skills and knowledge networks, providing e–infrastructure for delivery of e–services, promoting e–hardware manufacturing and information management and technology, providing direction and support for innovation infrastructure in emerging areas of technology and managing the security of Canada's digital presence.

Comments

infzy — 2010–05–11 17:53:24 EDT wrote

I'm much more inclined to think that the government should not be threatening the enormous innovative potential of digital technology with the threat of regulation. Our decrepit copyright laws already impose a huge burden on our ability to innovate beyond the status quo of digital media. (It is impossible to compete as a video–sharing site, for example, without an army of lawyers ready to negotiate deals with Big Media; this is a huge setback to the massive potential of the Internet.)

What sorts of practical initiatives would you suggest this new fancy department would try to accomplish?

RobWiebe — 2010–05–12 12:34:01 EDT wrote

Hey infzy,

What would this fancy new department do? I'm glad you asked.

• Provide leadership and profile to implement the digital strategy and get Canada back on the fast track to world leader.
• Harness the appetite Canadians have for digital technology to crowdsource low cost digital solutions for business, education, health, etc.
• Provide funding mechanisms to support entrepreneur activity.
• Increase competitiveness and productivity of the national ICT sector.
• Update the numerous policies that limit Canada from competing for offshoring technological business and providing digital government.
• Set specific goals in all levels of the digital ecosystem so the market can reach optimum equilibrium.
• Ensure the access and connectivity Canadians need so they can be active in growing the digital strategy.
• Allocate sufficient resources to support the initiatives that drive the digital strategy.
• Get buy in and build coalitions with other governments, e.g., provincial, territorial, municipal.
• Build the public–private partnerships that will be required to make the digital strategy succeed.
• Measure, evaluate and properly adjust the activities within the digital strategy to ensure success.

And just a final thought. Who's going to lead, enforce and defend the digital strategy that we're creating right now? The Minister of Industry? Alone? Or with support from other departments?

I'd argue that the job is far too important and time sensitive for shared responsibility. It needs to be done with focus. And it needs to be done now!

@robwiebe

coblenis — 2010–05–13 12:47:19 EDT wrote

I think it's more important to get the CTO/CIOs and senior government officials developing strategic plans together. Without understanding the real cost of technology, all the way from procurement to maintenance, how can we expect officials to make intelligent and effective decisions that involve ICT? What if all someone needs is a file server to share large documents on–demand but ends up paying ten times as much for a wiki that nobody will use because that seems like a cool idea?

The recent Auditor General's report is a wake–up call. Our essential programs rely on out–dated technology. Systems from the 1980s working with modern systems to process EI applications with over 20 different software applications, we can't afford to have program design and delivery conducted without sound IT policies across government. This kind of back–end processes is unnecessarily complicated.

The Treasury Board plays a role in guiding internal government IT and ICT policies. Maybe it can modify its other stewardship standards to include a rigorous IT assessment where senior officials and their tech teams discuss the IT and ICT implications of their long–term policy agendas.

As for external uses, ICT offers the great benefits of citizen engagement, public discourse and activism. This is tricky stuff, though. Politicians should be leading the charge here. Well, they should be listening to the grassroots movements spawned from these technologies if they aren't already. There's a whole whack of democratic dilemmas that'll rise up if bureaucrats can react or initiate some of these activities on their own.

Doug22 — 2010–06–06 18:31:35 EDT wrote

Coblenis, you seem to have a clear picture of how the government operates. The Auditor Generals report did point out that most of the backbones are 30 year old applications and databases. EI or GST or Income Tax have a pretty public front end but then translate everything into text and numeric fields. Government correspondence with the public of sensitive information is still largely done by snail mail and fax due to security concerns. Information silos exist for most government departments and agencies with no mechanism to share information. Even the power companies sharing names of excess users of electricity (potential grow–ops) is fraught with invasion of civil liberties.

If a central ICT organization was to be created the Treasury Board would be a good start to establish the funding, policy, scope and success measures (reportability) of the organization. Universities have also demonstrated they are capable of deploying wireless service and server coverage for their campuses that should not be ignored. Several cities are talking about creating municipal plans for wireless coverage. Who has done it and what structure has it been setup on? Our vaunted medical system has records for everything from prescription drugs to allergy records and full patient history and test records that are going to need peta bytes of storage and a new design for search and storage. Exciting times ahead!

Ron Van Holst — 2010–07–09 13:04:40 EDT wrote

Such a department would also make it easier to develop a supercomputing strategy for Canada. Although Canada is doing some interesting things with supercomputers, our investment in high performance computing infrastructure in terms of national labs, is not competitive.