End-of-Term Self-Assessment Report on Canada’s Third Biennial Plan to the Open Government Partnership 2016-2018

Description of results

This item was completed in the spring of 2016. In May and June 2016, the Government of Canada held public online consultations on its proposals to revitalize access to information. Feedback from these consultations was summarized in a What We Heard report, which was published online on October 19, 2016.

On October 17, 2016, the government tabled its response  to the June 2016 report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.

Lessons learned

Through the consultation process, we learned that Canadians see the need to fundamentally improve the current access to information framework and practices. Bill C-58 only addresses a subset of these concerns. It will be important that the planned Phase 2 full review of the act take a broad approach and facilitate input from stakeholders and users of the act, including Indigenous researchers and representatives. We also learned the importance of ensuring that our work reflects the feedback we receive from Canadians.

Description of results

On June 19, 2017, the government introduced Bill C-58 in the House of Commons to:

• modernize the Access to Information Act
• provide the Information Commissioner with the power to make binding orders and to apply the act appropriately to the Prime Minister’s Office, ministers’ offices, members of Parliament and senators, as well as institutions that support Parliament and the courts
• make more government information open by default (see the news release)

In November 2017, a number of amendments to Bill C-58 were made in the House of Commons, including:

• requiring that an institution obtain the Information Commissioner’s prior approval to decline to act on a vexatious or bad faith request; this change provides greater assurance to Canadians that legitimate requests will not be declined
• preventing institutions from declining to act on a request on the sole basis that it did not meet the requirements to provide a specific subject matter, type of record, and period or date of the records sought
• clarifying that Canadians will be able to request the original versions of documents that are proactively released under Part 2, in order to validate the information that has been published; the Information Commissioner would have oversight of the documents released in response to the request
• giving the Information Commissioner clear authority to publish reports of findings, including any orders made
• requiring that mandate letters be disclosed within 30 days of being issued; Bill C-58, as introduced, did not set a timeframe for the release of mandate letters

Lessons learned

The Government of Canada is committed to modernizing the Access to Information Act. This is a complex task. In preparing new legislation and trying to respond to stakeholder input, we were reminded again that changes to the act need to be crafted carefully to balance more open government with other important democratic values, such as the privacy of citizens, the impartiality and objectivity of the public service, and the independence of the judiciary.

Description of results

The full review of the act has not yet started. On December 6, 2017, the House of Commons adopted Bill C-58 as amended at third reading and the bill was referred to the Senate. On December 7, 2017, the Senate heard Bill C-58 at first reading. On June 6, 2018, the Senate heard it at second reading and referred it to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs for study. Because Bill C-58 is still before the Senate and has therefore not yet been implemented, a full review of the act has not yet begun.

Lessons learned

See failure report below.

Description of results

Work is underway to develop and implement the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Online Request Service, a central website where Canadians can submit personal information requests and access to information requests to any government institution. The first phase of rollout is targeted for fall 2018 and will enable Canadians to submit personal information requests and access to information requests to a number of institutions. More institutions will be added in 3 phases until all institutions are on board. The new service will also enable requesters to search previously released access to information records so that they can more quickly receive the information they are seeking.

Further rounds of testing of the new service were scheduled for summer 2018. The service will be launched once any needed adjustments are made in fall 2018. The current ATIP Online Pilot, through which Canadians have been able to submit requests to 33 institutions since 2014, will continue to operate in parallel with the new service until all institutions in the pilot are moved to the new service.

Lessons learned

In developing the ATIP Online Request Service, we have learned the critical importance of user testing to understanding Canadians’ needs as users of the service. We will continue to test the service with Canadians as we develop and implement it over the next phases and will make adjustments as needed based on their feedback.

Description of results

In June 2018 the President of the Treasury Board issued new requirements under the Directive on Personal Information Requests and Correction of Personal Information. As of October 1, 2018, institutions will be required to provide a written explanation to the requester when a request for access to personal information takes more than 30 days to fulfill. Institutions will also be required to report in more detail, in their annual reports to Parliament, on the reasons for extensions. The October 1, 2018, implementation date gives institutions time to adjust their business processes to meet the new requirements. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat is encouraging institutions to begin providing written explanations for extension to requesters before October 1, 2018.

Lessons learned

A key lesson learned in developing the policy on written explanation is the importance of allowing sufficient time to consult the institutions involved, such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, when shaping new policy proposals. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and other government institutions provided valuable input to the policy development process.

Description of results

Inventories were completed in the spring of 2017. Additional work was completed since then to ensure that departments updated their existing inventories. Also, the Open Government team worked with departments that had not completed the exercise to address issues that prevented the release of their inventory on open.canada.ca. 46 of 84 departments completed the exercise, including 33 out of 37 large departments.

Lessons learned

Departments found it challenging to complete comprehensive inventories of their data holdings because some had incredibly vast holdings and others did not have easily accessible or centralized holdings. This exercise identified a need to better define “open data” and what should be regularly released on open.canada.ca. The exercise also helped organizations establish and improve their internal data governance and management processes.

Description of results

To monitor progress, the Progress Tracker for Open Data dataset was released June 14, 2018, on open.canada.ca. The tracker captures the number of datasets from departments that have been released in the past year, as well as the target number of datasets that organizations plan to release by November 2018 and March 2019.

Although the total number of datasets decreased as a result of dataset consolidation and clean-up activities, as of June 2018, approximately 1,321 new datasets have been added since May 2017.

Lessons learned

Organizations need to continue to update their open data inventories and to develop schedules and plans for releasing their data on open.canada.ca. Although it was initially difficult to estimate when data would or could be released, updating departmental inventories enabled departments to better prioritize and schedule the release of data on open.canada.ca throughout the year. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat will continue to work with organizations on updating their inventories, because a small minority were not able to complete the exercise. We also learned that we need to work more closely with organizations so that they make more ambitious commitments to release content on open.canada.ca.

Description of results

The Open Government Guidebook, created by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat in collaboration with Government of Canada organizations, has been released as a draft on the Open by Default Pilot portal. It provides in-depth guidance and clarifies the requirements for departments and agencies to ensure that the government’s data and information practices are consistent. A blog post on this is also available.

The Open Government Guidebook includes:

• draft open government data and information standards, which provide guidance on how to apply data and information quality standards to resources released on open.canada.ca
• an outreach and engagement section to provide guidance on how to engage with users and key communities in Canada
• the Open Government Metadata Application Profile, which details the metadata elements that are used to describe datasets and assets added to open.canada.ca
• guidance on anonymization of datasets

Lessons learned

The development of the Open Government Guidebook demonstrated that dynamic, government-wide guidelines require ongoing collaboration. The guidebook was created by working group members from over 25 Government of Canada organizations. This collaborative approach to developing open government guidance can be challenging. Rigorous follow-up is therefore needed to ensure that guidance authors can meet deadlines and that content is consistent and coherent. However, this approach provides the wide breadth of expertise necessary to ensure functionality across departments and organizations. The guidebook will continue to evolve as open government practices for the Government of Canada evolve.

Description of results

The publication of the 2016 Census results is complete and all planned release dates were met. From July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018, the following results were published:

• Aboriginal peoples (October 2017)
• Education (November 2017)
• Families, households and marital status (August 2017)
• Housing (October 2017)
• Immigration and ethnocultural diversity (October 2017)
• Income (September 2017)
• Journey to work (November 2017)
• Labour (November 2017)
• Language (August 2017)

In addition to being available on the Statistics Canada website, the data is also available on open.canada.ca. This release of these results was a full 10 months faster than the 2011 Census results were released.

Events held:

• 10 “Chat with and Expert” sessions and 3 “Talking Stats” sessions took place between July 2017 and June 2018.
• 2 events took place between September and October 2017 as part of a Speaker Series for Canada 150.

Lessons learned

As the country’s national statistical organization, Statistics Canada has an opportunity and a duty to play a wider role in the open data community. The quality of all open data datasets is important, and, as data becomes open, more attention needs to be paid to protecting the confidentiality of citizens’ and businesses’ information. With this in mind, Statistics Canada is ready to offer its significant expertise in this domain and has made 2 new potential commitments under Canada’s 4th Action Plan on Open Government for 2018 to 2020:

• help review the quality of the top 200 downloaded datasets found on the Open by Default Pilot portal
• assist with a series of workshops for federal government partners on data anonymization

Description of results

A single online system, registry.open.canada.ca, has been developed. Departments are using it to standardize, consolidate and publish proactive disclosures. 82 federal entities are now releasing proactive disclosure information on open.canada.ca.

The data elements for Contracts, Grants and Contributions and Travel and Hospitality were updated so that they align with updates made to the respective polices.

Lessons learned

The development of standardized templates and publication functionality to support the release of proactive disclosures on open.canada.ca was successful. The process is simple and user-friendly, and has eliminated work required by web groups that previously had to publish these reports on their own institutional pages. The development of single consolidated search pages for each type of proactive disclosure has improved the user experience because users can now search for reports in one place on open.canada.ca, rather than search each institution’s page separately.

Description of results

Canada officially adopted the International Open Data Charter in March 2018. A document assessing the Government of Canada’s progress toward full implementation of the charter’s principles was posted on GCcollab in June 2018.

The Government of Canada has worked with government, civil society and private sector stakeholders across Canada and around the world to support the release of high-quality, high-value open data. In June 2018, 2 webinars (one in English and one in French) encouraging civil society and private sector organizations to open up their own data were held.

Lessons learned

Canada’s adoption of the International Open Data Charter reflects the importance of international instruments in supporting meaningful, ambitious change around the world. The principles set out in the charter must, however, be backed up by concrete actions and rigorous follow-up. In the coming years, the Government of Canada will work to ensure that it reports against its progress on implementing the charter principles.

Description of results

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat has developed the Open Government Metadata Application Profile to describe all open information resources and datasets. Users can now search both data and information together on open.canada.ca. Previously, users has to search data and information separately.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat has also developed the Open Government Guidebook to assist departments with contributing open information to open.canada.ca. In addition, it has finalized guidance documents for releasing open government resources on open.canada.ca to provide clarify release requirements for departments.

Based on extensive consultations with and review by different groups both internal and external to the Government of Canada, the Open Government Metadata Application Profile met the above requirements. This profile should be used as a best practice when the Government of Canada or our national and international open government partners are developing other metadata element sets.

Lessons learned

• The metadata set should align with existing best practices to support interoperability. Specifically, it should align with Government of Canada Metadata Standards and with other international profiles including:
  • North American Profile of ISO:19115,
  • MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema)
  • DCAT (Data Catalog Vocabulary)
  • Schema.org
  • MARC 21
• The element set used to describe Government of Canada data and information should align with the metadata element sets used for other open government initiatives around the world, for example, data.gov and data.gov.uk.
• The metadata set ought to make it easier for Canadians to search for and find electronic open government resources and could enable the development of search facets to allow users to refine their search on open.canada.ca.
• The metadata set should enable the creation of a single bilingual metadata record to comply with the Official Languages Act.
• The metadata set should enable the development of relationships or links to other metadata records on open.canada.ca to make it easier to, for example, link an open data record to an open information record.
• The metadata set could describe all open government assets in a variety of formats, including:
  • datasets
  • APIs
  • maps and services
  • publications
  • videos
  • photographs
  • documents
  • presentations
• The metadata set was easy to implement and was understood by departments and agencies.
• The metadata set was flexible and extensible and will allow for the development of further metadata extensions for specific collections (for example, publications or open maps).

Description of results

The draft Open Government Guidebook includes a section on retention and preservation of digital content that appears on open.canada.ca. It does not, however, address the retention and preservation of other Government of Canada digital content.

The Open Government team at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat worked with a number of stakeholders, including Library and Archives Canada, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat legal advisor, and Natural Resources Canada’s Federal Geospatial Platform, to devise guidance on the retention and disposition of data and information that Government of Canada institutions make available on open.canada.ca.

Discussions continue within the Government of Canada on appropriate practices for retaining and disposing of open data and open information resources available through open.canada.ca. Work is underway to develop appropriate retention and long-term management standards for information that could be of ongoing value to Canadians even when it is no longer of business value to government. Work has therefore not yet been completed on the development and publication of guidelines on the preservation and retention of digital content.

Lessons learned

One important lesson that will inform future work on preservation and retention of digital content is that the objectives of open government (that is, greater openness, transparency and accountability in government) may not always align with retention and disposition guidelines that focus on whether government data and information has business value (that is, whether they support the ongoing business of government by enabling decision making and the delivery of programs, services and ongoing operations, and so on).

Description of results

Through Library and Archives Canada’s block review initiative, 11,164,897 pages of archived government records were reviewed and 10,498,631 pages were opened.

Library and Archives Canada made the Canadian Expeditionary Force collection available to the public. This collection consists of 7.8 million images (3.9 million pages), which were digitized over the course of 1 year. As of August 2018, the entirety of the Canadian Expeditionary Force collection was digitized where over 29 million images were made accessible.

Library and Archives Canada is continuing to develop policies that will allow Canadians to access as many records as possible held by Library and Archives Canada. The aim is to remove restrictions on records already held by Library and Archives Canada and to ensure that incoming records are as unrestricted as possible.

The policy development work is part of a larger review of Library and Archives Canada’s policy suite that will include strategic research on how Library and Archives Canada can best achieve its goal of minimum restrictions and the development of strategic and operational instruments to enable this goal.

Lessons learned

Library and Archives Canada’s block review initiative continues to demonstrate the importance of openness by default and of releasing information that may be valuable to Canadians. Reviewing archived government records to determine whether restrictions can be removed is labour-intensive; Library and Archives Canada therefore also works with departments across the Government of Canada to, when possible, remove access restrictions when records are archived.

Description of results

From 2016 to 2018, Library and Archives Canada harvested approximately 6 terabytes of data from Government of Canada websites, including:

• harvests related to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Web Renewal Initiative
• further harvesting from the “.gc.ca” and “canada.ca” domains, which included some Government of Canada YouTube content

Library and Archives Canada also began migrating archived web data to a new platform so that all Government of Canada web content harvested since 2005 will be indexed and publicly accessible. Once this migration is complete, any newly harvested content will be accessible to the public within weeks of harvest, eliminating future backlogs of content waiting to be made accessible.

Lessons learned

Variations in the structure of website code and web development practices make it difficult to archive resources successfully. To make Government of Canada web resources more “harvester-friendly,” standards could be developed for subdomain URL structure and best practices could be identified for development. Best practices could include:

• avoid using back-end databases that are not indexed for resource retrieval
• avoid using proprietary technologies that are not Government of Canada property and cannot be collected (for example, embedded Twitter feeds and Flash)
• avoid using the pound symbol (#) in URLs
• use static rather than dynamic URLs
• provide well-structured site maps for thorough harvesting of the site

Description of results

As of June 2018, GCDOCS has been rolled out to 133,526 federal government workers.

Lessons learned

The implementation of GCDOCS required significant training and strong change management strategies to ensure that users could use GCDOCS to manage their records and documents. Rather than focusing on the technological aspect of the software deployment, the Government of Canada supported departments and end users with information management training, best practices, change management strategies and opportunities to share solutions and lessons learned.

Description of results

The Government of Canada has established a number of mechanisms for reporting on key performance indicators related to openness and transparency. As well, the Management Accountability Framework requires Government of Canada institutions to report on the percentage of data sources used in the institution’s Departmental Results Framework or Program Alignment Architecture that are released on open.canada.ca.

The Privy Council Office’s Mandate Letter Tracker tracks the results achieved on 39 entries classified under the “Fair and Open Government” priority.

The progress tracker for the 22 commitments in Canada’s Third Biennial Plan to the OGP is publicly accessible and is updated quarterly.

The Open Government team at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat posted its evolving logic model for open government on GCcollab.

Lessons learned

Developing and tracking meaningful key indicators to measure openness and transparency across the Government of Canada takes time. The online progress tracker is a good starting point. Standardizing data on outputs, outcomes and, in particular, impacts of the governance of open government across institutions to allow for comparison will, however, be much more efficient.

Description of results

Since the release of the open data inventories, citizens have been able to search the inventories on open.canada.ca and vote on which datasets the Government of Canada should fast-track for release.

To monitor progress on the inventories, the Progress Tracker for Open Data dataset was released June 14, 2018, on open.canada.ca. It indicates the number of datasets from departments that have been released in the past year, as well as the estimated number of datasets that organizations plan to release by November 2018 and March 2019.

Lessons learned

Knowing the range of information the Government of Canada is creating and collecting is useful in making data and information more open and in understanding the value of the data government holds. Creating inventories of datasets and information allows the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to assess them and, when possible, plan for their release.

Description of results

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat worked with the SecDev Group to develop an approach to assessing the impact of open government reforms in the Government of Canada. Open Government: Measuring Impact, SecDev’s report on this work, includes a draft logic model for open government and a proposed performance management framework with related indicators. The framework is meant to be a starting point for facilitating a conversation within the government and with stakeholders about what a Canadian framework for impact should include and how it can best be evaluated.

Lessons learned

Indicators for measuring open government efforts and outcomes should also take into account the impact of open government. Evaluating impact is difficult, however, because it can be difficult to measure the indirect effects of openness and transparency, and because impact is generally measured over a longer term than implementation. It will be important to engage with stakeholders to ensure that the evolution of open government indicators align with the priorities of Canadians.

Description of results

Between November 2016 and June 2018, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat organized and hosted approximately 70 learning events on open government with federal public servants involving approximately 5,000 learners. Topics covered included:

• introduction to open government
• open data
• open source software
• open standards
• open government and access to information
• digital government

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat officials also organized or participated in dozens of events, panels and presentations to raise awareness of open government among audiences external to government, including students, researchers and representatives from civil society and the private sector.

The Open Government Learning Hub, was launched on open.canada.ca in October 2017 and the Canada School of Public Service GCcampus learning platform was developed (only accessible to federal public servants).

In May 2018, as part of Open Government Week 2018, Government of Canada departments and agencies and partners in academia and civil society organized more than 30 events, presentations and hackathons to promote and celebrate open government.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat has been transitioning to a “train-the-trainer” model. The Secretariat trains departmental open government coordinators, who then lead training sessions in their departments.

Between October 2017 and June 2018, the Canada School of Public Service, in collaboration with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, offered the following events on open government:

• Open Source Software and Open Standards in Public Administration: armchair discussion held October 25, 2017, open to the public via webcast
  Total number of learners: 508
• Open Government: Enhancing Program Delivery and Inspiring Innovation: EXecuTalk held November 27, 2017
  Total number of learners: 84
• Rethinking the Public Service in the Digital Era: held December 13, 2017, in Ontario
  Total number of learners: 299
• Open Government: An Ongoing Process: held December 14, 2017, and open to officials from the Government of Quebec
  Total number of learners: 223
• Open Science: What Sets Canada Apart: held January 22, 2018, and open to the public via webcast
  Total number of learners: 205
• Open Source and Software Security: held May 1, 2018
  Total number of learners: 335
• Is Open Data Dead?: held May 11, 2018
  Total number of learners: 308
• Open and Transparent Government: part of the Canada Beyond 150 series, held June 6, 2018
  Total number of learners: 314
• Let’s Talk Digital First: held June 27, 2018
  Total number of learners: 453

Lessons learned

Given the strong interest in open government events learning opportunities should continue to be offered to public servants and Canadians. The 4th National Action Plan on Open Government therefore includes new draft milestones and indicators that involve offering events, learning opportunities and materials relating to open government.

Description of results

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat has participated in several forums over the last year to build capacity in and advance understanding about open government. Events include the ones listed in connection with milestone 6.1, as well as:

• World Economic Global Shapers Design Jam (July 13, 2017)
• GOV Camp (Organization of the American States) (August 22, 2017)
• Institute of Public Administration of Canada Annual Conference (August 22, 2017)
• Annual Conference of the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada (September 14, 2017)
• National Data Services Framework Summit (September 22, 2017)
• GovConnect Canada (October 17, 2017)
• Canadian Bar Association Annual Privacy and Access Law Symposium (October 22, 2017)
• FWD50 (November 1 to 3, 2017)
• GovMaker 2017 (November 20 to 21, 2017)
• Open Government Partnership Americas Regional Summit (November 21 to 22, 2017)
• Conference Board of Canada National Security and Strategic Foresight Group (November 29, 2017)
• Government of Canada Data Conference (December 12, 2017)
• Open Data Ottawa (December 18, 2017)
• Carter Center Conference on Women’s Right to Access Information (February 14 to 15, 2018)
• Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre (April 2018)
• CIO Summit (April 19 to 20, 2018)
• Go Open Data (May 11 to 12, 2018)
• Open Government Partnership Global Summit 2018 (July 17 to 19, 2018)
• Drupal North Regional Summit (August 25, 2018)

Lessons learned

See lessons learned for milestone 6.1.

Description of results

Public consultations were held, and the plan was updated in November 2017 to include a specific commitment to develop a strategy for the use of open source. Open source is now specifically mentioned in the updated Policy on Management of Information Technology, which took effect April 1, 2018.

In December 2017, the Government of Canada’s new Enterprise Architecture Review Board (EARB) announced the position that EARB supports the formalization of a common government-wide approach to the use of open source in government, because it will result in a more robust open source community in the Government of Canada. A draft Open First Whitepaper was developed and will inform EARB’s setting of standards on open standards and open source software. These standards will be used in procurement and in developing a digital strategy, favouring the use of open standards and open source software.

Lessons learned

Departments and agencies need to find effective ways to offer the best digital services possible to citizens and users. This implies working in the open by default, by releasing all non-sensitive data, information and source code under an open licence that enables sharing and reuse.

Description of results

The Government of Canada Service Strategy was developed and was highlighted in the Clerk of the Privy Council’s Twenty-Fourth Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service. Immediate effort under the strategy focuses on 10 work streams and is aimed at enhancing, streamlining or modernizing services to Canadians, including services to seniors, services to veterans and services to businesses.

Lessons learned

Developing the Government of Canada Service Strategy required significant coordination across a number of departments responsible for delivering key services.

Guidance for improving service delivery must be clear and concrete. A “one-size-fits-all” approach will not work. Guidance must be flexible enough to allow key service departments to work effectively and at the same time ensure a more consistent user experience across a variety of services.

Description of results

The Guideline on Service Management, published in 2017, provides guidance to departments on managing their services and implementing the Policy on Service. Section 2.7, Service standards and performance information, provides guidance on setting and managing service standards and real-time performance information to support the design and delivery of services.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat has created a tool to help departments assess existing service standards and develop new ones to ensure that they are meaningful to Canadians. Under the Policy on Service, departments must publish their service standards and related performance information for priority services on or through canada.ca. Examples of published standards and performance information:

• ESDC [Employment and Social Development Canada] service performance reporting for fiscal year 2016 to 2017
• Service Standards in the CRA [Canada Revenue Agency]

Departments that are leading Service Strategy work streams have been making progress. Progress on several streams is being tracked on the Privy Council Office’s Mandate Letter Tracker, under the “Government Services and Operations” priority. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat will be publishing a report on service in 2018.

Lessons learned

Government of Canada departments have a responsibility to report on improvements to service delivery; however, they must also make sure that reporting requirements do not overburden key service departments. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat will continue to work to ensure that all new reporting requirements take into consideration existing departmental assessment and reporting frameworks and activities.

Description of results

The Nomenclature website will be launched in fall 2018 and will be available online. For more information on the project, see Nomenclature: A New Online Resource for Museum Catalogers. Nomenclature will be available as linked open data in 2020. Nomenclature is a system for classifying human-made objects and the standard cataloging tool for thousands of museums and historical organizations across the United States and Canada. In 2016, Canadian Heritage developed more than 3,000 standardized values for names, object types, subjects and other terms.

Lessons learned

Canadian Heritage has found that liaising with international experts is crucial as we refine our data models, because there is not complete agreement in this changing field. We will continue to work on a strategy to design and maintain national authorities according to the latest standards. The Nomenclature website will give museums access to an authoritative online terminology source, and the Canadian Heritage Information Network will use it as a base for future online terminology resources in linked data format.

Description of results

Canadian Heritage completed a linked data demonstration project called 150 Years of Canadian Art, which showcases the potential that a linked open data model offers to more widely publish, connect and enrich information on museum collections. In fiscal year 2016 to 2017, a second prototype was developed and added information from recognized web resources and authorities (such as Nomenclature 4.0) and enhanced search functionalities.

Lessons learned

We need to develop more in-house expertise. We will use the lessons we learned in working on our linked data projects when we write our requirements for future search interfaces.

Description of results

As of June 2018, 8 partner museums have joined the Information Network Program:

• the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
• the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
• the Art Gallery of Ontario
• the McCord Museum
• the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
• the National Gallery of Canada
• the Vancouver Art Gallery

Select data contributed by these institutions has been enhanced with links to open data sources from around the world.

The Canadian Heritage Information Network has developed educational and promotional material for the museum community. The material will be available on the Canadian Heritage Information Network’s website in the coming months.

Lessons learned

The linked data test projects gave us a deeper understanding of the format of the data in museum collections management systems. As we move forward, we will need to expand the understanding of the value of linked open data. We will use the educational material developed to promote linked open data to our museum community. Revision of the Artefacts Canada database ensures the continued availability of the records from over 500 museums while we work on implementing a linked data solution.

Description of results

In fiscal year 2017 to 2018 Canadian Heritage began redeveloping the Artefacts Canada database, which serves as a hosting platform for Canadian museums that are unable to host their own collections. The redeveloped (non-linked data) database was published in March 2018, and an advanced search function was made publicly available in July 2018.

In fiscal year 2017 to 2018, the Canadian Heritage Information Network conducted a thorough analysis of existing data in the Artefacts Canada database. Based on the results of this analysis the network recommended improvements to Artefacts Canada data so that the transition can be made to linked data.

Creating linked open data is a relatively new way of publishing data online, and standards and tools are still being developed. Canadian Heritage will be examining available tools for harvesting or collecting museum data, but because of the foundational work needed to harvest digital collections and provide a repository for them for museums that do not yet have a digital presence, Canadian Heritage made limited progress on this milestone in the time period of the plan.

Lessons learned

We gained a deeper understanding of the issues with existing Artefacts Canada data and are developing a strategy for linked data based on those understanding issues.

What was the public problem that the commitment sought to address?

Understanding how well the government is doing as a whole, or in key areas of interest, is challenging because data is presented in multiple reports and information sources. Canadians expect their government to implement effective and efficient programs and services, and to report transparently on whether they are meeting their intended goals. A clear understanding of what resources are being used by departments to deliver programs and services is fundamental to Parliament’s role of holding government accountable for delivering on its priorities. Information on planned spending and results for government activities is currently provided through mandatory departmental reports, including Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

What was the commitment?

The Government of Canada will increase the transparency of government spending and procurement to hold government accountable for public expenditures.

How was the commitment expected to contribute to solving the public problem?

As part of the Government of Canada’s new Policy on Results, mandatory departmental reporting is being refocused on each department’s long-term mandates, as well as on their immediate priorities. Related data from planned and actual activities is available in a searchable online database that provides quick and easy access to detailed information on government spending and people management. This data is presented in a manner which facilitates Canadians’ analysis and broader understanding of where government resources are being invested.

Relevance to OGP values

This commitment relates to the OGP values of transparency and public accountability.

Expected result

It will be easier for Canadians to see how government resources are being distributed across the areas that interest them. They will have greater online access to government financial information. They will also be able to follow the procurement process from start to finish according to international standards.

9.1 Milestone:

Release an interactive tool that will increase the granularity of data and information made available and enable Canadians to better understand federal departmental spending:

• Expand the types of data, graphics, and analytics available including:
  • Planned and actual results
  • Comparisons between historical and planned spending
  • Spending on specific components such as salaries, capital, transfer payments, and so on
• Enable users to explore government spending of the most interest to them based on key data elements (for example, target group, program type, priority area)

9.2 Milestone:

Enhance online content pertaining to government finances on open.canada.ca to make information and tools on government spending readily accessible to Canadians.

9.3 Milestone:

Provide targeted and timely material to make government accounting and financial reporting more consistent, transparent, and understandable to Canadians.

9.4 Milestone:

Pilot updating the Buyandsell.gc.ca site to record the full details of contracts (in addition to awards), contract amendments and the final termination of contracts.

9.5 Milestone:

Participate in a case study to share best practices from Public Service and Procurement Canada’s pilot of the Open Contracting Data Standard on Buyandsell.gc.ca.

Completion level

9.1 Complete
9.2 Complete
9.3 Complete
9.4 Limited
9.5 Limited

Failure report

9.4 “Pilot updating the Buyandsell.gc.ca site to record the full details of contracts (in addition to awards), contract amendments, and the final termination of contracts”

and

9.5 “Participate in a case study to share best practices from Public Service and Procurement Canada’s pilot of the Open Contracting Data Standard on BuyandSell.gc.ca.”

The context has shifted from when the commitment was established in 2016. Public Service and Procurement Canada determined that recording information related to planning and implementation would require it to examine closed and completed files, which is essentially a manual data-entry exercise. At present, Public Services and Procurement Canada captures the remaining data required for the Open Contracting Data Standard pilot using its legacy systems. The data is therefore not available in a format that can easily be linked with other procurement information in an open format.

This challenge was recognized when working toward meeting this commitment, but Public Services and Procurement Canada did not immediately address it and decided instead to focus on implementing a new electronic procurement solution (ePS). Since the ePS will automate and digitize Public Services and Procurement Canada processes, adjusting legacy approaches and systems that will be adjusted through ePS would not be an effective use of resources. Resources were therefore devoted to enhancing the functionality of the Buyandsell.gc.ca platform by updating the email notification system and by developing buying and selling applications).

Public Services and Procurement Canada has agreed, as part of the National Action Plan on Open Government for 2018 to 2020, to publish complete contract records for a subset of major projects. It will determine what analysis, piloting and publishing would benefit development of the ePS in a way that will support the plan’s overarching objectives. The ePS will help us to meet the overarching objectives of the OGP.

What was the public problem that the commitment sought to address?

Each year, the Department of Finance Canada plans and prepares the federal government’s budget and analyzes economic and fiscal developments. This serves to provide policy advice on a wide range of economic issues of concern to the health of Canada’s economy. The datasets for federal budgets have been released publicly since 2015 but with a lag time of 6 to 8 weeks given formatting, editing and translation requirements. As well, the list of briefing note titles prepared on a wide range of economic and other matters by Department of Finance Canada officials has only been made available to specific requesters through access to information requests.

What was the commitment?

The Government of Canada will provide access to the datasets used in the federal budget each year in near real time and proactively disclose the list of briefing note titles prepared on economic and other matters.

How was the commitment expected to contribute to solving the public problem?

There is an opportunity to accelerate the preparation of the datasets used in the budget. This would allow their publication in near real-time following the release of the budget to facilitate analysis by citizens and Parliamentarians. There is also an opportunity to broaden public access to the titles of briefing notes prepared by Department of Finance Canada officials for the Minister, the Parliamentary Secretary, and the Deputy Minister, in order to be transparent about the issues raised.

Relevance to OGP values

This commitment relates of the OGP values of transparency and public accountability.

Expected result

Canadians will have timely access to the data used in the annual federal budget and other Department of Finance Canada information.

10.1 Milestone:

Starting with Budget 2017, make all data from budget charts and tables available in near real time to facilitate analysis by citizens and Parliamentarians.

10.2 Milestone:

Post publicly the list of briefing note titles prepared by Department of Finance Canada officials on a regular basis, in order to be transparent about issues raised.

10.3 Milestone:

Explore options to increase the transparency of the pre-budget consultation process.

Completion level

10.1 Complete
10.2 Complete
10.3 Complete

What was the public problem that the commitment sought to address?

Each year, the Government of Canada provides funding to support initiatives focused on career development, employment, homelessness, seniors, youth and others through its various grants and contributions programs. Disbursing this funding works to meet the objectives of the government and ultimately helps to better serve Canadians. Reporting on grants and contributions by departments is currently asymmetrical, with limited capacity to search reports across government. Furthermore, data is only required for grants and contributions with a funding amount in excess of $25,000. Data published across government is in non-standard formats, which makes it difficult to share.

What was the commitment?

The Government of Canada will provide one-stop access to consistent, standardized searchable data on grants and contributions programs across the federal government.

How was the commitment expected to contribute to solving the public problem?

Federal departments and agencies that have the authority to deliver grants and contributions are currently disclosing data on agreements over $25,000. To further support the government’s commitment to transparency and openness, departments will disclose information on agreements less than $25,000 and will do so in a standardized and consistent format, which will improve the data quality and searchability.

Relevance to OGP values

This commitment relates to the OGP values of transparency, civic participation, and public accountability.

Expected result

Canadians will have easy access to standardized information on all grants and contributions funding by federal departments through open.canada.ca.

11.1 Milestone:

Provide Canadians with centralized access to standardized information on grants and contributions funding that is proactively disclosed by federal departments via a common, searchable portal on open.canada.ca:

• establish a standardized, common template for federal departments to publish their data through the centralized portal
• increase access to grants and contributions information through a decrease to the required disclosure amount from $25,000 to $1
• provide training to federal departments on how to upload their data
• ensure historical data previously disclosed by federal departments on grants and contributions funding is searchable via the central portal

11.2 Milestone:

In consultation with internal and external stakeholders, expand the amount of information on grants and contributions funding disclosed by departments to align with international standards.

11.3 Milestone:

Pilot an approach to improving transparency in the delivery of grants and contributions by Canadian Heritage, including publication of:

• an increased level of detail in the data proactively disclosed on individual grants and contributions awarded by the department
• performance results against published service standards
• data on events and celebrations funded by the department

Completion level

11.1 Complete
11.2 Complete
11.3 Complete

What was the public problem that the commitment sought to address?

Currently, business identity information is distributed across jurisdictions in Canada, which poses access challenges for citizens and businesses alike. The federal, provincial and territorial governments have agreed to collaborate on enhancing processes to reduce the burden on corporate registration and reporting and to provide streamlined access to corporate information through an online search. Making information about Canadian companies and organizations more accessible, discoverable and usable, can ultimately improve corporate accountability.

What was the commitment?

The Government of Canada will provide searchable information on Canadian businesses that is held in business registries at the federal, provincial and territorial levels.

How was the commitment expected to contribute to solving the public problem?

The federal, provincial and territorial members of the Canadian Association of Corporate Law Administrators (CACLA) are collaborating on the development of an expandable and adaptable digital solution.

Relevance to OGP values

This commitment relates to the OGP value of transparency.

Expected result

Canadians will have access to real-time information on Canadian businesses registered at the federal, provincial and territorial levels.

12.1 Milestone:

Launch a pilot project to provide citizens and business with online capacity to search existing federal and provincial (from Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia) business registries through a single search tool.

12.2 Milestone:

Develop a proof of concept and prototype of a digital solution for reducing burden in the areas of corporate search, registration and reporting for Canadian businesses that is expandable to all registries across Canada in order to improve consistency in corporate data provided to the public by both federal and provincial governments.

12.3 Milestone:

Launch a pilot of the digital solution using real data in a test environment. The online corporate search component will be released for testing by users.

Completion level

12.1 Complete
12.2 Complete
12.3 Complete

What was the public problem that the commitment sought to address?

Over the last 5 years, federal departments have worked together to establish a single platform to collect and share geospatial data. This effort enables Canadians to more easily discover, view and understand geospatial data. Building on this strong foundation, the focus in the coming years will be to increase the quality and usability of geospatial data to derive additional information, solve problems, help with context setting and assist with evidence-based decision-making.

What was the commitment?

The Government of Canada will make more high-quality, authoritative and useable geospatial data available in open formats to support better services to Canadians.

How was the commitment expected to contribute to solving the public problem?

The geospatial data collection is being expanded, and the technologies to access that data are being improved, thereby fundamentally changing the way geospatial assets can be accessed and used by government and the public. The single window to federal geospatial data, open maps, is supporting progress toward a modern, networked and technology-enabled society. It will ensure effective program delivery, improve services to Canadians, and support them in their day-to-day activities.

Relevance to OGP values

This commitment relates to the OGP values of transparency.

Expected result

Canadians will be able to find and use high-quality maps.

Description of results

• Geospatial datasets accessible through Open Maps increased by more than 350 to 781 as of June 30, 2018. Data has been contributed by 14 departments and agencies, up from 8.
• A new collection of high-resolution elevation data derived from LIDAR (light detection and ranging). The High Resolution Digital Elevation Model (HRDEM) is part of the CanElevation Series created in support to the National Elevation Strategy implemented by Natural Resources Canada.
  
  Natural Resources Canada released the Canadian component of the Arctic DEM, in cooperation with the Polar Geospatial Center of the University of Minnesota.
  
  Natural Resources Canada also released flood extent polygons representing current year floods throughout Canada as monitored by Natural Resources Canada using satellite imagery to support emergency response efforts.
• The work with researchers and others to continuously populate the open maps gallery with timely, relevant “click-to-view” data took longer than anticipated and was not completed in time for June 2018. See Failure report section below.

Lessons learned

Although working to maximize the release of open geospatial data, the costs associated with responding to the Directive on Open Government sometimes pulls resources away from other relevant open data work, such as data quality review, web design, and visualization tools, which can make it difficult for departments to sustain their data contributions. Departments are becoming less willing to keep increasing their data contributions because the cost of doing so may have an impact on ongoing operations, including those related to improving the open data user experience.

Description of results

• The renewal and enhancement of national elevation data has been identified as a critical geospatial data priority for Canada’s Geospatial Data Infrastructure. Natural Resources Canada has created a National Elevation Data Strategy to help Canada increase the quality and standardization of the elevation data coverage in the country through partnerships and strategic investments in elevation data acquisition.
  
  The National Elevation Data Strategy aims to develop:
  • a national system for the management and dissemination of elevation data
  • a national LIDAR data acquisition guideline
  • automated methods for extraction of additional cartographic features from the elevation data
• Natural Resources Canada transitioned the Federal Geospatial Platform project to operational status with 11 partner departments.
  
  Natural Resources Canada led the Federal Geospatial Platform initiative agreement from partner departments to assess and review the quality of data web services and work collectively to invest in data quality improvements as part of the Federal Geospatial Platform Concept of Operations.
  
  Natural Resources Canada:
  • Worked with the Open Geospatial Consortium Quality of Service Experience group to produce a discussion paper. The report was approved by Open Geospatial Consortium Technical Committee vote. Development of the discussion paper was led by the Federal Geospatial Platform team at Natural Resources Canada and is based on the web service quality assessment framework developed in 2017.
  • Completed a data quality assessment on a sample of 30 datasets and associated web services found on Open Maps. The next phase will evaluate all Federal Geospatial Platform high-value datasets
  • Developed standard operating procedures relating to the Federal Geospatial Data Asset Management Plan (FG-DAMP), developed with the Federal Geospatial Platform Interdepartmental Data Work Committee
  • Worked with provinces and territories from October 2017 to April 2018, in collaboration with members of the Canadian Council on Geomatics, and expressed interest in exchanging data and including provincial and territorial geospatial metadata and services through Open Maps.
  • Completed data and metadata inventory for 8 provinces and territories (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut and Newfoundland and Labrador)
  
  The Federal Geospatial Platform initiative developed a geo-community cloud architecture and installed the core components (ArcGIS Server, Portal, Image Server, GeoAnalytics Server) in the Azure cloud and the Amazon Web Services cloud, in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada’s Chief Information Officer and the Shared Services Canada cloud brokerage service.
  
  Natural Resources Canada developed the ability to automatically extract geographic features from high-resolution satellite imagery using a deep-learning algorithm deployed in a high-performance computing environment. The work is intended to support flood risks analysis through the location of buildings in flood-prone areas. The project demonstrated the performance of the system and led to recommendations for applying deep-learning feature extraction on a national scale.
• Natural Resources Canada:
  • Led the Maps for HTML Community Group, which seeks to establish at least one hypermedia type that can be considered to be consumed by a new “map” element for HTML. The goal is to reduce the technological knowledge required by people who want to add dynamic map content to their own web pages.
  • Developed a MapML submission to the Open Geospatial Consortium World Wide Web Consortium (OGC-W3C) Spatial Data on the Web Interest Group plenary meeting.
  • Participated in the Open Geospatial Consortium Testbed-13, which resulted in a MapML Engineering Report that suggested that web client technology improvements and solutions to data visualization pose challenges to cope with limited bandwidth.
  • Participated in the Open Geospatial Consortium Quality of Service Experience and released a discussion paper that was approved by Open Geospatial Consortium Technical Committee vote.
• Worked with Statistics Canada to pilot approaches for visualizing socio-economic data by:
  • holding regular governance meetings
  • disseminating census data on the Federal Geospatial Platform via web services
  • preparing a joint presentation for a workshop of the European regional committee of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UNGGIM: Europe) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on harmonizing statistical and geospatial standards
  • collaborating on the development of visualizations of Sustainable Development Goal indicators

Lessons learned

The use of cloud computing has changed the security requirements for some Federal Geospatial Platform applications and highlighted the need to streamline and modernize the way web content is deployed on Open Maps.

There continue to be delays to Natural Resources Canada in accessing the Government of Canada’s cloud brokerage.

Description of results

Examples of data visualizations and applications developed to address policy priorities:

• Marine spatial data infrastructure group on ArcGIS Online
• Featured maps and applications created by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on ArcGIS OnlineAGOL

Natural Resources Canada “targeted apps”:

• Inuvik Satellite Station Facility Story Map App
• B.C. Wildfires Situational Awareness NRCan
• Remote Communities Energy Database
• Territorial Evolution from 1867 to 2017
• Current Floods in Canada

Deployed MapML services supporting 3 map projections.

A new version of the Federal Geospatial Platform Data Extraction tool was released. This version provides a simplified interface for people who want to download Canada’s geospatial framework data.

The Federal Geospatial Platform Web Map Viewer Authoring tool was deployed. This tool makes it easier to develop targeted mapping applications using the Federal Geospatial Platform web map viewer application, which is deployed on open maps.

Lessons learned

There is still a need for culture change to increase the uptake of geography and geospatial data in the policy and science communities.

Description of results

Dr. Mona Nemer was appointed Chief Science Advisor on September 26, 2017. Her mandate and functions are outlined in her mandate letter.

Lessons learned

Government of Canada champions for key subject-matter areas and priorities, such as open science, play an important role in supporting progress and greater ambition among government departments and agencies. In her role as Chief Science Advisor, Dr. Nemer has been a key advocate for open science initiatives in the Government of Canada, and her work in this area could serve as an example to other senior government officials.

Description of results

The science-based departments and agencies have increased the public availability of data and publications that they produce. Publishing in Open Access is well established across all of the science-based departments and agencies, and releasable datasets are uploaded either to open.canada.ca or to other discipline-specific repositories.

Between 2016 and 2018, science-based departments and agencies developed mechanisms to encourage and support making data and publications public. Examples include updates to policies that promote increased public availability, such as the National Research Council Canada’s Policy on Information Management, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Science Branch Publication Policy, and Transport Canada’s governance framework for Open Government (all internal documents).

Both Environment and Climate Change Canada and Natural Resources Canada extended the principle of openness to draft documents and shared documents as part of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s Open by Default pilot project.

Lessons learned

Science-based departments and agencies identified challenges related to the current information technology landscape and its impact on the ability of science-based departments and agencies to increase the public availability of publications and data. The requirement to enhance discoverability of data, scientific publications, literature and digitized datasets relating to specific subjects of public interest continues to be a priority effort for the science-based departments and agencies.

2 risks have been identified:

• The multiple data registries in departments and across the government might lead to multiple versions of data and uncertainty about which dataset is the authoritative source.
• Breaking data tables up into multiple smaller files (data fragmentation) can make it difficult to put them back together later for the purpose of data analysis.

A robust process of de-identification to remove or mask personal information is required before confidential data can be made open.

Accessibility and official language challenges continue to affect science-based departments and agencies’ abilities to make publications open as well.

Description of results

Since the implementation of the Third Biennial Plan, science-based departments and agencies have enhanced communication of opportunities to participate in federal science and technology activities through a variety of activities, including the following:

• Fisheries and Oceans Canada, through its Partnership Fund, has funded projects to increase First Nations’ engagement in and integration of traditional Indigenous knowledge into fisheries science. These projects have increased the science capacity of First Nations and increased collaboration with the department.
• Science-based departments and agencies, including Environment and Climate Change Canada, the National Research Council Canada, and the Communications Research Centre Canada have opened their facilities to communicate their science to the public through events that coincide with other public activities, such as Doors Open Ottawa, Science Odyssey and National Public Service Week.
• The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Youth Science Canada joined efforts to host a well-attended STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Expo at the 2018 Canada-Wide Science Fair.
• Transport Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada have developed teams dedicated to communicating science and research.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada and National Research Council Canada have provided social media training for researchers.
• The Communications Research Centre Canada and Health Canada have provided training for researchers to develop plain-language science stories.

Lessons learned

Scientists want training in communicating science; however, they are concerned that popularizing science could reduce its credibility and lead to misinterpretation by the public. These concerns will need to be addressed in any science communications training.

Making public engagement a second nature will take time and momentum. Developing an external audience and an internal culture that embraces active communication will be required to maximize outcomes.

Description of results

In June 2018, Monitoring Open Science Implementation in Federal Science-Based Departments and Agencies: Metrics and Indicators, the report of the Science-Based departments and Agencies Open Science Metrics Working Group, was finalized and shared with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. The report identifies 4 core metrics and 3 supplementary metrics to track the Open Science activities of federal science-based departments and agencies. It also identifies areas for future work, such as the development of more metrics to measure the impact of Open Science and how it benefits Canadians.

Lessons learned

Developing and implementing metrics is a long-term project. Challenges include identifying metrics that are acceptable and useable across 14 different science-based departments and agencies, each with different mandates and priorities.

To develop metrics for measuring the impact of Open Science, the desired impact will need to be defined. This will be something to explore during implementation of the Fourth Open Government Action Plan. It will also be critical to consider the ways in which behaviours can change as a result of the implementation of a performance measurement regime. For example, the Chief Science Advisor has referred to the proliferation of “frivolous” patents that are registered simply to boost metrics that seek to measure the innovation and impact of academic institutions.

Granting councils and grants and contributions

Description of results

Since this milestone was drafted, it has become clear that there are a broad range of diverse science-related transfer payments with different considerations. A single open-access policy would therefore be difficult to implement. It was decided that a statement of principles or guidelines, rather than a policy, would be more meaningful and useful given the complexity of the issues. A draft statement of Statement of Principles on Open Access to Publications Supported through Grants and Contributions has been shared with the community of practice for feedback.

In 2015 (before the implementation period of the Third Biennial Plan), the 3 federal granting agencies (the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) published the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. The objective of the policy is to improve access to the results of agency-funded research and to increase the dissemination and exchange of research results. Grant recipients are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication. In addition, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research requires researchers to make certain types of data openly available upon publication of results.

Lessons learned

Government departments and agencies must continue to be agile and adaptable in their work, so that they can identify the right solutions to complex problems. By adapting our approach and developing open access guidelines rather than a more rigid policy, we provided a mechanism that will help departments implement open access practices that fit their own ways of working.

Description of results

The 3 granting agencies (the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) are developing a policy on research data management (RDM) for agency-funded research.

The agencies have met with various stakeholders across Canada to discuss RDM, and those discussions informed the development of the Draft Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy. In June 2018, the agencies launched an online public consultation to solicit feedback on the draft policy. Feedback received will inform the final design of the policy, which the agencies plan to launch in 2019.

Lessons learned

As demonstrated in the development process for a new policy on RDM, all relevant stakeholders inside and outside government must be able to provide their input in government decision-making processes.

Description of results

Open Data Exchange successfully mapped more than 150 companies for Open Data 150 and released an infographic that highlights key findings. A total of 161 companies had been identified and mapped by the end of June 2018.

Lessons learned

The use of open data by companies to drive economic value is growing but remains largely nascent. There is still great potential to unlock significant value from open data. A large gap still exists between data providers and data users. Open Data Exchange has developed a number of services and programs to close this gap.

Description of results

An online platform has been launched to showcase the 161 companies mapped.

Lessons learned

At the start of the Open Data Exchange mandate, the creation of this platform allowed better assessment of the state of open data use in the private sector. Based on this assessment, the Open Data Exchange was better able to develop and deploy programs and services that accelerated the adoption of open data by the private sector.

Description of results

Open Data Exchange has developed robust networks of both data providers (government open data providers) and data users, and intermediaries and enablers, to support the creation and evolution of open data supply chains.

Lessons learned

The use of open data beyond open government and transparency to driving economic outcomes requires a culture change in government, which is a challenge. However, the Open Data Exchange has seen the dialogue change over the past 3 years, and there is now more focus on creating open datasets that meet a need in the marketplace.

Description of results

4 demonstration projects are complete, and 1 additional demonstration project is still underway as of the end of June 2018. Completed demonstration projects include:

• D2L (Desire2Learn) digitized education standards from several Canadian provinces and included them in its Achievement Standards Network, which instructors and course designers can consult to create content that aligns with curriculum standards.
• The City of Guelph held an open data challenge to engage the private sector to create solutions to civic challenges such as energy efficiency, water quality and parking.
• The City of Stratford piloted a Smart Parking project, with an online map to show the availability of municipal parking spaces in the downtown core.

Lessons learned

The Open Data Exchange was able to support 2 extra demonstration projects throughout its first 3-year mandate. These projects were important to demonstrate the art of the possible and provide others with insights on how they could capitalize on the use of open data. All of the projects have continued without additional funding from Open Data Exchange.

Description of results

Open Data Exchange has engaged with companies in various capacities. More specifically, 18 have been funded through the Open Data Exchange Ventures program, 261 companies have engaged using the mentor and concierge services, and the Communitech Data Hub (Open Data Exchange’s home base) is home to over 40 companies, many of which are using open data.

Lessons learned

To provide relevant support to companies in the emerging space of open data, the Open Data Exchange had to pivot on its own business model as it learned about challenges, barriers and opportunities that were emerging in real time. For that reason, the way it anticipated helping companies at the beginning of its mandate was different from how it ended up helping them. Any intermediary or support organization that tries to help companies in this emerging space must be nimble and be able to respond quickly to market indicators.

Description of results

The Canada Open Government Working Group (a collaborative forum made up of representatives from the federal, provincial and territorial governments) is supporting the adoption of the principles of the international Open Data Charter across jurisdictions. It has created a shared space on GCcollab for collecting resources and sharing actions taken toward adoption of the charter.

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, along with the Government of Ontario, the City of Edmonton and Open North, delivered a panel session at the 2017 Canadian Open Data Summit to promote adoption of the principles of the charter.

Notable recent adopters of the charter include the governments of Canada and Ontario and the City of Edmonton.

Lessons learned

The adoption of the Open Data Charter by constituencies at the 3 different levels of governments represents a major step forward in aligning open data across Canada. These early adopters are well positioned to serve as mentors to other interested jurisdictions (particularly at the provincial, territorial and municipal levels) in adopting the charter. Work must continue with civil society organizations and other entities that are leveraging subnational open data initiatives and fostering progress through tools such as the Open Cities Index. Intensifying the use of collaborative tools, national and regional open data forums, targeted communication products and social media will also raise awareness and promote adoption of the charter.

Description of results

The Canada Open Government Working Group has developed a criteria tool for identifying high-value datasets, as well as examples of categories of associated datasets.

The working group has identified an initial list of 17 high-value datasets for priority release across jurisdictions.

Online public engagement on the list of high-value datasets was initiated on June 28, 2018.

Lessons learned

Currently, each government defines its own criteria for the datasets it will prioritize for release. Also, one government might record and report data differently from another, which can make it even more challenging to integrate these datasets. The collaborative approach that the Canada Open Government Working Group implemented to identify the 17 high-value datasets has been the first step in addressing this major issue. Having a common approach to defining important datasets increases the chance that similar datasets can be released and then connected to provide even greater value.

Description of results

The Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding on a federated open data search service across the open data portals of both governments. Mapping of metadata and controlled vocabulary for both jurisdictions was completed, the technical architecture was created, and the pilot federated open data portal was launched on June 28, 2018.

Visitors to the Government of Canada open data portal can now access data contributed by either the federal government of Canada or the Alberta government. This pilot will serve as a model for federating Government of Canada data with data from other provinces, territories and municipalities.

Lessons learned

This work has helped demonstrate that a federated open data search service is scalable. Pivotal to the success of this pilot project was the alignment of metadata profiles and technology architecture across both the federal government and the Government of Alberta.

Description of results

The Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta hosted a half-day senior executive meeting of the Canada Open Government Working Group during the 2017 Canadian Open Data Summit, held in Edmonton, to develop a cohesive approach and work plan for a pan-Canadian framework on open government.

The Government of Canada also collaborated with provincial and municipal partners to host a panel session on aligning open data across Canada at the event.

The Canada Open Government Working Group also engaged Indigenous Open Data leaders on Indigenous data governance, infrastructure, analytics and reporting during the summit.

Lessons learned

The Canadian Open Data Summit provided a unique forum to advance discussions at multiple levels of government on key open data priorities. The co-hosting of joint panel sessions at the summit also strengthened the working relationship on open data between governments, civil society organizations, industry, and Indigenous leaders. This collaborative approach is crucial to building an open data culture through peer learning and sharing of best practices.

Description of results

Natural Resources Canada held in-person information sessions and bilateral meetings on the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal, as well as numerous sessions via teleconference and video conference.

It collected feedback from these sessions and from an electronic survey completed in June 2017 to find out about challenges that businesses encountered in reporting in the first year of the act. It then formed a stakeholder advisory group to collaborate on improving tools and guidance based on this feedback.

In March 2018, Natural Resources Canada provided stakeholders with a revised guidance document, new guidance on including payments to Indigenous governments in Canada, and a revised template and report validation checklist. These efforts are expected to facilitate compliance and lead to more consistent and comparable data.

Lessons learned

The in-person information sessions, bilateral meetings and teleconference and video conferences to date have been well-received. In a survey completed in June 2018, two-thirds of Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act stakeholders surveyed expressed an interest in continuing to participate in Natural Resources Canada’s outreach activities, including through in-person sessions and webinars. These results highlight the importance of ongoing engagement and outreach with industry and other stakeholders.

Description of results

As of June 2018, the majority of the reports published for the first 2 years of reporting under the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act were linked on the Natural Resources Canada website. As of June 2018, 100% of the links were active in over 850 reports, enabling the public to access data on payments made to governments in Canada and abroad.

Lessons learned

Under the act, reports must be available online for 5 years. Natural Resources Canada has begun using a link checker to verify more frequently throughout the year that the links remain active and to ensure that the reports remain accessible to the public.

Description of results

Natural Resources Canada collaborated and shared information and lessons learned with other governments that have either already introduced similar legislation or demonstrated an interest in increasing transparency in the extractive sector.

Lessons learned

Work with governments in other jurisdictions must continue to:

• ensure alignment with the emerging global standard on transparency
• ensure that data on payments made to governments is accessible to the public
• minimize the administrative burden on industry

Description of results

As a new member of the OGP Steering Committee, Canada will advocate for the OGP’s fundamental values of openness, transparency, accountability and participation by:

• exemplifying these values in all of our work, and particularly through our co-chair priorities of inclusion, participation and impact.
• seeking to ensure that global open government efforts support greater inclusion of traditionally marginalized or under-represented people, particularly women and girls, who remain critically under-represented in the highest circles of public power and influence
• bolstering global resolve to rigorously track the tangible results of their efforts
• encouraging governments to speak about both their accomplishments and their struggles in delivering on open government

Lessons learned

International declarations on open government can be a powerful force for raising the level of global ambition and pushing for meaningful change; however, declarations must be backed up by concrete action and rigorous reporting. When Canada hosts the 2019 OGP Global Summit in May, it will take a results-driven approach that encourages governments to identify not only the principles and priorities that are important to them, but also the actions they will take to implement those principles and priorities, and the mechanisms they will used to report on their progress.

Description of results

At the IATI Annual Members’ Assembly chaired by Canada in October 2017, members reviewed progress on important initiatives and set directions for an increased focus on use of open aid data. In remarks to the IATI members, the Chair of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee highlighted the importance of transparency and accountability, and the complementarity between IATI and the Development Assistance Committee.

The 2017 IATI Annual Report shows sustained progress in the range and quality of data published by over 800 organizations working in the development and humanitarian sectors. The IATI Standard now enables the publication of data mapped to:

• the 2030 Agenda goals and targets
• Humanitarian Global Clusters
• national public accounts

The Org-ID.guide initiative that spun off from IATI provides access to organization registers and supports interoperability.

Lessons learned

Open data and government initiatives tend to focus initially on increasing access to data and information, but eventually, attention must turn to data use. Since 2016, IATI members have taken steps to increase awareness of open aid data and supported the development of tools and services to facilitate its use in support of development results.

Description of results

Canada has helped fund and organize the Open Data for Development (OD4D) network, a network geared at strengthening open data ecosystems around the world.

The OD4D network’s offered peer learning activities and technical support, which spanned the world, were provided through:

• the School of Open Data
• the Open Data Leaders Network
• the regional OD4D hubs that serve:
  • Africa
  • the Caribbean
  • Latin America
  • Eastern Europe and Central Asia
  • Asia
  • Middle East and North Africa (which includes Francophone Africa)

Peer learning activities supported leaders working in public service and those working in civil society. More than 900 open data leaders were supported by the end of the implementation period; 61% were men, and 39% were women).

This support took a number of forms, including in-person and online. Technical support was provided to 14 governments, mostly delivered through the OD4D hubs.

As a result of the success of this support, OD4D signed a memorandum of understanding with the OGP to lead their strategic partnership on open data. This work could expand resources available to support governments to take on more ambitious commitments and to release data in ways that support the ongoing growth of the open data ecosystem. To advance this work, OD4D partners supported a session on best practices in open data at the 2018 OGP Global Summit in Georgia. Canada will continue to support this work through its next national action plan on open government.

In addition, the IATI Secretariat delivered presentations and workshops to increase the capacity of partner country officials, civil society organizations and media to use aid data to monitor development resources and results.

Lessons learned

Efforts to provide training and peer learning must continue to be supported by local organizations and communities so that training is tailored to the local context. This tailoring makes training efforts more easily scalable and leverages local experts and advocates to build networks of open government champions across a number of different regions and sectors.

Description of results

The OD4D network has invested in sector-specific innovation aimed at further understanding the impact of open data on anti-corruption, local governance, health and education. This has included:

• ongoing collaboration with other key open data actors such as the signatories to the Open Data Charter and the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) to develop “open-up packages” and support to 5 scaled applications in health, anti-corruption and open education
• seed funding for a number of pilot projects whose sustainability is still being assessed
• reports on the impact of these activities will be published in the 2018 State of Open Data report

OD4D has continued to prioritize support to innovation for gender equality and gender transformation. For instance, in Latin America, it has worked with the Organization of American States and with governments in the region to help prevent and eliminate violence against women, catalysing actions to collect reliable data on domestic violence and women’s homicides.

Lessons learned

One of the greatest challenges in supporting the implementation of innovative open data projects with impact on anti-corruption, local governance, health and education is assessing and measuring the impacts of those projects. It can be difficult to measure the indirect impacts of greater openness and transparency, and it can sometimes take a long time for the impacts of open data initiatives to be realized.

Description of results

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has released 68 datasets on open.canada.ca since November 2016 (including 10 new datasets since the mid-term self-assessment), appreciably increasing the amount of open agriculture and nutrition data available to data users around the world.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada continues to be an active member of GODAN, recognizing the important role GODAN plays in supporting open agriculture and nutrition data to achieve sustainable development outcomes. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada offered departmental resources to the 2016 GODAN Summit planning committee. Unfortunately, when this offer was made, the planning had already advanced to a point where those resources would not be required. However, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada attended the summit and actively participated in the Agricultural Open Data Package working group session.

In September 2017, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada supported a discussion session entitled “Farmers sharing their data with scientists” at the Research Data Alliance Tenth Plenary Meeting in Montréal, which was sponsored by GODAN.

Lessons learned

Early engagement and co-development of commitment milestones between central and other government departments will improve departmental planning and best position the Government of Canada for success.

Description of results

A Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Open Government was launched in December 2017 with members from government, civil society and academia. The forum has been meeting regularly since, and brokering additional meetings, discussions, and working sessions between experts and stakeholders from civil society and government program leads as required.

Lessons learned

It can be challenging for public servants, who operate in a particular accountability structure, to work with individuals from civil society in a discussion format designed to explore possible futures. Many government decisions, particularly those involving funding, have to be made at particular levels, which can sometimes stifle or completely stop progress on proposed initiatives. More work is needed to establish strong communication channels between government and civil society members of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum, and to design decision-making processes that leave space for creativity, adaptability and co-creation.

Description of results

Engagement sessions on Canada’s National Action Plan on Open Government for 2018 to 2020 focused on issues including the following:

• data sovereignty
• beneficial ownership
• financial transparency
• feminist open government
• open data

In many cases, Multi-Stakeholder Forum members helped identify impacted and interested stakeholders, and co-managed the sessions. The forum has been a key partner in identifying priority themes for the 2018 to 2020 action plan.

Lessons learned

A thematic approach to engagement allows for focused discussion among people who are interested in and familiar with a particular topic, which allows for direct exploration of the topic. However, it also means that dialogue is less likely to include conflicting views and competing priorities.

Description of results

Public engagement principles are available on the Open Government portal.

Current work includes:

• implementing and measuring principles in practice through Government of Canada engagement
• collaborating with public servants from other levels of government, public engagement practitioners and others on making available guidance and supports that enable practitioners to engage effectively with citizens

In 2016 and 2017, the Open Government team took initial steps to engage with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities on open government issues. Targeted engagements included meetings with representatives of the First Nations Information Governance Centre and engagement events in Alberta and British Columbia, which were co-organized with Indigenous communities. These initial conversations showed that engagement with Indigenous communities should not focus on individual projects or events. Instead, it needs to focus on building lasting relationships of mutual trust and respect with Indigenous partners. A draft commitment in the National Action Plan on Open Government for 2018 to 2020 reflects the government’s commitment to reconciliation and to nation-to-nation relationship-building.

Lessons learned

The Government of Canada’s consultations and public engagement team did not have the skills required to engage meaningfully with Indigenous peoples in a broad enough dialogue to support the development of engagement principles.

The following documents contain guidelines and principles for government consultations with Indigenous peoples:

• Aboriginal Consultation and Accommodation: Updated Guidelines for Federal Officials to Fulfill the Duty to Consult, March 2011
• Principles Respecting the Government of Canada’s Relationship with Indigenous Peoples

Further work will be done in future to better reflect a spirit of reconciliation, with a goal of developing relationships of mutual trust with our partners in First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities across Canada.

Description of results

The Government of Canada has undertaken a number of initiatives to identify supports that will help departments achieve the full potential of public engagement and consultation processes.

The Government of Canada is collaborating with civic technology and public engagement practitioners to co-create an ecosystem of tools for citizens and government to engage online.

Work to date includes:

• conducted usability testing to inform improvements to Consulting with Canadians
• developed public engagement training:
  • 5 one-day sessions were delivered for 135 participants within 4 months
  • 2 train-the-trainer sessions increased potential for these sessions to be offered in the future
• developed and delivered training to policy and communications analysts on evaluating public engagement
• developed and delivered an interactive workshop on designing public engagement approaches, and published the facilitators guide online that maps engagement methods to goals
• conducted 2 pilot projects to use artificial intelligence to categorize and analyze large volumes of qualitative input
• completed a Request for Information for public engagement services; the goal is to expand the number and type of services that are available through a pre-qualified list of vendors

A multidisciplinary team led by the Community of Federal Regulators piloted the use of an open source platform that allows stakeholders to provide comments on a regulatory text directly online (eRegulations). The platform enables Government of Canada analysts to analyze stakeholder input effectively, which is an important step in open policy making. The pilot project helped identify barriers to stakeholders participating online and internal barriers to creating online tools. The code for this tool is open source and available online.

Lessons learned

A high level of digital and data literacy, combined with emotional intelligence and a clear understanding of the entire policy process, are required to develop and execute engagement strategies that result in useful to lines of evidence in policymaking. Many digital engagement tools exist, but few are built for use at the federal level and allow, for example, in-line commenting on legislative documents.

Description of results

The Government of Canada has undertaken a number of initiatives to identify and support participatory processes. Examples include:

• contributed to open repositories of data, methods and tools (including posting case studies on Participedia and sharing cases and stories with the Open Government Partnership)
• published citizen feedback as open data, for example, Open Government Consultation Data: Canada’s Third Biennial Plan to the Open Government Partnership (2016–18), consultations on national security submissions and public opinion research from Employment and Social Development Canada
• explored pre-processing and content analysis of comments from public consultations in CSV format (comma-separated values) using Python; the documentation and tool is publicly available on GitHub
• launched GC Developers Exchange, a website where Government of Canada teams can post contract opportunities for open source digital solutions and developers can find contract opportunities; all procured code is licensed as open source and housed on GitHub to encourage re-use
• used GC Developers Exchange for a contract opportunity to find new ways to more easily release data sets that were not in accessible formats; openly documented the experience online, including lessons learned
• updated policy advice provided in Cabinet Directive on Regulation that lays out the purpose, value and process of engaging with stakeholders when developing or changing regulations
• updated the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity in May 2016 to clarify the role of heads of communications in supporting public engagement in the development of policies programs, services and initiatives
• guidance has been published by Status of Women Canada about using gender-based analysis plus as a tool when planning public engagement efforts

Lessons learned

It takes longer than 2 years to realize the results and outcomes of public engagement in the context of policy, program or service design and implementation. It is possible to track and document activities as they occur, but  measuring outcomes can only occur after implementation.

Description of results

The Government of Canada has undertaken a number of initiatives to develop and promote indicators for open government. Work to date includes:

• developed a performance measurement framework that defines an approach to measuring process integrity, policy outcomes and trust in government
• conducted public opinion research on citizen engagement in Canada to understand extent to which Canadians were aware of, and participated in, government activities
• drafted a measurement framework to assess the principles of public engagement

Lessons learned

Viewing open government as a program rather than a lens through which to conduct government business may be a barrier to wider adoption of putting open policy making into practice.

Description of results

Canada was elected to the OGP’s Steering Committee and is the current supporting co-chair. Canada will leverage this leadership role to support peer learning and exchange on key priorities, including inclusion, participation and impact.

Canada also recently served as chair of the International Aid Transparency Initiative and the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN).

The Open Data for Development (OD4D) network, hosted at Canada’s International Development Research Centre, was recognized as the OGP thematic leader for open data and will continue to lead learning-focused work at regional and global forums.

Language on open government was included in:

• the Déclaration d'Antananarivo, the declaration from the 2016 summit of the International Organisation of La Francophonie
• a Government of Canada fact sheet published during the 2016 North America Leaders’ Summit
• a Canada-Estonia Joint Statement on Digital Government and Economy
• a Canada-France Joint Declaration on Cultural Diversity and the Digital Space
• a Canada-UK memorandum of understanding on digital government

A declaration in advance of the Summit of the Americas includes a reference to the role of open government and open data in the fight against corruption, building broad institutional support for the regional program, which has been initiated with Canada’s support.

Canada contributed to the organization of, and was in the program of, the fourth International Open Data Conference in Madrid, where Canada shared successes and challenges.

Canada also participated in a number of other key international forums, including:

• the 2016 OGP Global Summit in Paris, France
• the 2018 OGP Global Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia
• the 2017 OGP Americas Regional Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• OECD open government peer review missions to Costa Rica and Argentina

Lessons learned

In 2018, Canada is often referred to as a global leader in open government. The Government of Canada therefore has a responsibility to act as a global leader, both by undertaking transformational initiatives domestically and by promoting and reinforcing the value of openness, transparency and accountability globally. This leadership role is especially critical at a time when open government has an important role to play protecting democracy worldwide by strengthening citizens’ trust in public institutions. By discussing its successes and failures, and by documenting and sharing learning, Canada is leading by doing.

Description of results

In November 2017, Open Burkina was selected to coordinate the African Francophone Open Data Community and act as a regional hub to coordinate research, innovation, and capacity building in Francophone Africa. In June 2018, activities commenced with local representatives in 8 countries, including local capacity building, agenda building, and working with multi-stakeholder partners.

Lessons learned

The 2016 African Francophone Open Data Community conference brought together 22 Francophone countries and raised awareness of the importance of creating and adapting existing open data practices in the region.

A regional hub was established to support the community with materials adapted to the context of Francophone Africa and to encourage locally led leadership, which was highlighted as a need.

Canada provided support for locally led peer learning and coordination activities and sought to support networks for sharing best practices across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, which contributed to fast progress and growth in ambition of open data efforts. Led by local organizations and agendas, Canada is supporting connections between the Francophone communities and leading stakeholders around the world, including in Canada, creating opportunities to share learning.

Description of results

Canada signed the Open Data Charter in 2018. Since July 2016, more than 20 additional governments worldwide have adopted the charter, including the Government of Ontario and the City of Edmonton. Under the charter, Canada provided support for developing global resources and for key initiatives in developing countries, including work in agriculture, public procurement, gender and data journalism.

The fourth edition of Open Data Barometer was published in May 2017 and covered 115 countries. Funding for a Special Edition Barometer Report for Africa was approved in 2017, and work is underway, with release planned for September 2018.

Lessons learned

Global resources are needed for the open data community, but they must align with emerging agendas and provide a strong basis of evidence. The Open Data Barometer aligned with other open data indexes and has a special edition to include new countries. As discussed in the previous cycle, assessing and benchmarking the impact of open data initiatives around the world is and will remain crucial for assessing the efficacy and quality of such initiatives in both Canada and the world.

Description of results

The Open Data Portal Survey assesses user satisfaction with the portal to improve user access to high-value, statistical tax data and publications. It was posted online in August 2016 before the Mid-Term Self-Assessment Report. A new user-friendly format was subsequently developed, and a pop-up window that invites users to participate in the survey was added.

The survey and pop-up were made compatible with canada.ca site following the transfer of Canada Revenue Agency web pages in summer 2017. Technical difficulties that affected whether visitors were shown the pop-up window resulted in lower participation in the survey. Only 40% of visitors to the site are shown the pop-up. In addition, the survey competes with other surveys on canada.ca. As of June 2018, 34 responses to the survey have been obtained. 50% of the survey participants found the statistical tax publication easy to find, and 53% found the information easy to understand. Past surveys from before the pop-up was implemented had higher participation rates.

Lessons learned

The use of pop-ups to encourage participation in surveys has been found to be generally ineffective. The Canada Revenue Agency is exploring the possibility of changing the administration of the survey from a pop-up to hyperlinks on as many relevant pages as possible.

Description of results

The Canada Revenue Agency’s online and in-person consultations on the rules governing charities’ political activities were completed in December 2016. Over the consultation period, the agency received almost 20,000 written submissions from charities and individuals and met with 167 representatives from the charitable sector. A consultation panel reviewed the feedback and presented a report to the Minister of National Revenue in March 2017. As announced in Budget 2018, the government will provide a response to the panel’s report in the coming months.

Lessons learned

Recommendations brought forward through the consultation process will help the government better understand the challenges faced by, and the needs of, the charitable sector when contributing to public policy debate. This input from stakeholders is invaluable to understand how best to clarify the rules governing the political activities of charities.

Description of results

Public opinion research with Indigenous communities and vulnerable populations, including urban Indigenous Canadians, was conducted in spring 2017 to better understand the factors that may prevent eligible individuals from accessing benefits. 2 reports were published:

• Qualitative Research: The Experiences of Indigenous Communities with Tax Filing
• Barriers Associated with Tax Filing in Vulnerable Populations: Qualitative Research

The Canada Revenue Agency is using the results of these studies to inform more targeted initiatives to improve Indigenous peoples’ participation in the tax and benefit system. The agency continues to work with its federal partners to identify opportunities to increase Indigenous peoples’ awareness of and access to benefits and credits.

Lessons learned

Both public opinion research studies provided valuable insights into barriers experienced by Indigenous communities and vulnerable populations. Future research should consider a more intersectional approach, for example, by considering the specific experiences of vulnerable populations such as seniors and persons with disabilities within Indigenous communities. In addition, more flexibility should be built in for engagement timelines for Indigenous communities to take into account communities’ varying approval processes and associated timelines.