Thank you very much.
I'm just going to read a brief opening statement, in order to discipline myself to stay within our time limits today.
Good afternoon, Chair, members of the committee and esteemed colleagues. I wish to thank the committee for this opportunity today. I am pleased to participate in this discussion on such an important topic, namely how governments can both expand and improve digital service capacities, while protecting the privacy and security of citizens and all stakeholders.
I will begin by building upon a few of the comments made by the Privacy Commissioner in his thoughtful remarks to the committee last week. Three points stood out for me, in particular: first, the importance of the Government of Canada's data strategy road map; second, notions of barriers versus safeguards; and third, the Estonian model, as a comparator for Canada and other countries.
In my view, the data strategy road map is an important reference point in this debate, as the Privacy Commissioner observed. It is a comprehensive discussion of both opportunities and challenges, based on the cumulative efforts of both Liberal and Conservative-led governments over the past decade, as well as like-minded efforts across all government levels and the private and non-profit sectors.
Data-driven capabilities are now widely regarded as critical enablers of service innovation in today's digital age. Such capabilities often imply, and even necessitate, data sharing across multiple government entities, yet the road map aptly describes a fragmented public sector environment, often more vertical than horizontal, as Amanda noted, with a host of legislative and cultural barriers impeding a whole-of-government approach.
From his vantage point, the Privacy Commissioner observes that “what is a legal barrier to some may been seen as a privacy safeguard by others.” In my view, the essential task of this committee is to reconcile the inherent tensions embedded within this prescient observation with the shifting realities of today's society and the emerging opportunities presented by digitization. While I laud the critical efforts of the Privacy Commissioner to safeguard and enforce privacy rights, it is also the case that many legislative, organizational and political barriers do inhibit greater innovation through information and data sharing.
Several pilot initiatives across the country, across all government levels and often encompassing more than one government level, have demonstrated how information and data can be shared without sacrificing privacy. Nonetheless, such pilots all too often flow against the currents of traditional public administration and proprietary notions of protection and control.
In an era where openness and engagement are drivers of networked and agile governance models that challenge traditional hierarchies, privacy is bound to be a contested notion. While a large segment of society remains deeply concerned about privacy, others have simply written off the concept as dated and unrealistic. Bridging this widening cleavage requires trust in public and collective governance mechanisms, and key enablers of such trust are openness and dialogue stemming from political institutions, in large part.
In this regard, and to your point, Estonia is an enlightened example of a country embracing open-source technologies and leading-edge solutions for more integrated and online services. Central to that country's widely recognized success in this regard is the sustained and transpartisan political commitment to making digital transformation a societal project in the aftermath of the collapsed Soviet Union.
In terms of political history and institutional structures, a closer comparator to Canada is Australia, which also presents a compelling case study. Despite widely reported digital failures and privacy breaches, which all countries experience, Australia has steadily climbed to the upper echelon of the United Nations global e-government surveys over the past decade—which is inversely correlated to Canada's performance—partly due to a robust political dialogue and strong engagement on digital matters by elected officials from both the House and the Senate.
Such political literacy helps to facilitate digital literacy across society at large. Australia has also recently created a new national agency, with both federal and state-level involvement, devoted to e-health solutions and, by extension, reconciling privacy and sharing in that critical space. While I have great respect for the boundaries and benefits of federalism, an important lesson for Canada in health care reform is the need for greater intergovernmental collaboration in devising new digital frameworks for shared policies and more virtual forms of delivery.
More broadly, in this country, the absence of more robust collaboration, particularly with respect to financing and shared political accountability, is a major inhibitor of greater progress in digital service innovation. The plethora of public sector service centres in large and medium-sized cities merely underscores this point, further encouraging each government level to focus on its own service apparatus in largely separate manners.
Canada is not alone in facing such struggles, of course. I am presently engaged as a consultant to the OECD, assisting in a groundbreaking study examining digital government from subnational and interjurisdictional perspectives. An emerging theme from this project is the essential role of a holistic governance architecture for the public sector as a whole.
I would offer two final observations. First, privacy in a digital era should not be framed solely or even predominantly as a matter of rights. Citizens, too, have responsibilities in becoming “data activists,” to quote CBC journalist Nora Young in her book entitled The Virtual Self.
A new social contract for the digital era cannot be predicated upon unrealistic promises for unfettered privacy rights, especially in a world where governments must themselves challenge such rights for a host of reasons. Of course, the private sector also carries important responsibilities to customers and to all stakeholders. A more sophisticated dialogue is essential as a basis for public education and collective action. As well, in my view, new forms of more direct public engagement in devising digital service solutions are also warranted.
The final observation I would make is the essential role within the legislative branch for what I would call anticipatory capacities to better understand the challenges and the risks that lie ahead. The committee has undoubtedly heard experts discuss the potential of blockchain technologies, which some might associate with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Beyond Estonia's widespread adoption of blockchain, Finland is deploying such technologies to deliver support services to refugees, while a separate Finnish pilot enjoins agriculture producers and local governments in a shared effort to improve employment services in rural communities. The European Union has funded several like-minded blockchain pilots, and it is notable here that the European Parliament has appointed a special adviser on blockchain to facilitate collective learning.
In closing, I would commend this committee for its efforts as an important enabler of strengthened digital innovation in the delivery of public services, and I look forward to your questions.