Thanks for that question.
The point of having a stand-alone Minister of Digital Government is to recognize how important it is that we are able to serve Canadians with the means that they expect. Today, that means on a phone as well as other channels and also to be able to do it quickly, securely and effectively. Bringing together different parts of IT and digital is the point of Shared Services Canada, the Canadian Digital Service and the CIO branch working together under a stand-alone ministry.
I'm finding that each group has incredible dedication and competency in their own part of this. The fact that we now meet together and explore how Shared Services Canada, for example, is helping facilitate the delivery of policies and strategies that are put out by the CIO branch and how the Canadian Digital Service is doing some practical, on-the-ground implementation of improvements is strengthening our government's ability to move more quickly in this digital transformation.
I would like to say that Canada is actually not as much of a laggard as the previous member had mentioned. We are actually leading in a number of ways on this kind of transformation. I'm proud of the work that the public servants in Canada have been doing. It's challenging to change a culture where every department had its own authorities, its own silos and its own ability to do its own thing, when what we're trying to do is to work more collaboratively and integrate some of the work that's being done digitally across government as a platform to be able to modernize.
I'm very encouraged by the progress that's being made, but this integration is critical to take a next step for that.