Information Management in the Government of Canada: The Vision

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Executive Summary

Within the Government of Canada (GC), needs at all levels are not being met because of problems with Information Management (IM). These problems undermine the ability of programs to function well and achieve their desired outcomes, and cause programs to incur unnecessary costs. Ultimately, problems with IM interfere with the ability of the Government of Canada to meet the needs of Canadians.

Work has progressed in many areas of IM across the GC, but no overarching design exists to bring solutions to IM problems together and no master plan coordinates the way forward across the many organizations that must participate. A piecemeal approach to solving IM problems has been largely ineffective. The GC needs one coherent, explicit, broadly supported IM capability: a formal IM Program accountable for IM outcomes.

When the target state for the IM Program is reached, we will be able to say that:

In the Government of Canada, information is safeguarded, as a public trust and managed as a strategic asset to maximize its value in the service of Canadians.

The IM Program is comprised of interrelated services that must work together to achieve this vision and meet the needs of GC programs, both internal and public facing.

The IM Program is defined by the following direct outcomes:

• All programs have quality information to function and be managed well and for the delivery of their services. They have information to trace decisions and processes. Their information is preserved and safeguarded and made available to collaborators as appropriate.
• Government-wide, corporate or executive level programs have the assurance that Government of Canada’s record of processes and decisions has integrity and that clients’ rights are being upheld in the conduct of Government business, specifically in the handling of personal information. These programs have the ability to aggregate information vertically for Ministerial accountability, and horizontally for programs and services spanning departments and jurisdictions, allowing the government to operate as an enterprise.  Executive programs’ information holdings are organized and information management processes are structured so that the Government can undertake change with agility. Finally, the IM Program operates effectively within the context of the whole enterprise of government.
• In order to achieve service integration – that is, to deliver programs and services that cross organizational boundaries – integrated service delivery programs have information that is capable of being interpreted correctly out of the context in which it was captured or created, and effectively and efficiently aggregated with information collected elsewhere.

The direct IM Program outcomes contribute to the following government outcomes[1]:

• Better-managed Government.
• Increased quality of program decision-making.
• Increased confidence that the Government is implementing the best standards, rules and practices.
• Increased confidence in the privacy and security of information entrusted to or generated by the Government.
• Increased confidence in the transparency and openness of Government.
• Greater relevance and effectiveness of Government through the achievement of higher valued outputs of integrated services.
• Better collaboration between programs and between programs and their delivery partners.
• Increased confidence that the Government upholds clients’ rights.

Innovation is needed in three “areas of improvement” so that the IM Program can achieve its direct outcomes, as follows: 

1. Optimized information handling will preserve and safeguard programs’ information and ensure its availability to deliver services, collaborate, manage and trace processes and decisions. It will be realized through the following innovations:
   • Business-aligned IM will provide the right information at the right time in accordance with the current and emergent business needs at that time.
   • Information requirements analysis and planning will identify and manage information needs through application of standardized methods and tools.
   • Information will be organized, structured and coherently stored regardless of storage media, in an architected GC information repository – coherently designed and configured across all GC institutions. This will make information from any program and service easily retrievable across departmental boundaries in the context of all other information held by the government.
   • Secure information exchange will provide uniform secure means to move information that accommodates all media types and communication methods.
   • Smart information will automate many IM processes, such as the protection of privacy, copy management, security and maintenance of an information audit trail, in a transparent manner.
   • Information source accreditation will certify information providers to help ensure that the quality of the GC’s information assets is maximized and that legal obligations are met.
   • Information availability insurance will protect information stored on any media type for its full life cycle.
   • Citizen-controlled information will allow citizens to control their own information through a set of policies, standards, services and tools.
   
   
   
2. Sound IM Rules and Practices will ensure that information and supporting processes are structured to support service integration, promote the GC’s agility, uphold clients’ rights, ensure the integrity of the GC record, and support the GC in operating as an enterprise. It will be realized through the following innovations:
   • Government of Canada information architecture will hold the shared understanding of and agreement on a common description of the information assets of the GC.
   • Information standards for business interoperability will enable federal organizations to work seamlessly with each other and with public and private sector partners, whether through information sharing or collaboration.
   • Information asset preservation framework will provide enhanced rules, authorities, accountabilities and tool requirements for disposition, archiving and retention of information.
   • TQM for IM will provide quality-controlled and managed information assets based on consistent standards and processes.
   
   
   
3. Strong IM Program Management will result in an IM Program that is structured to operate effectively throughout the GC and has a clear value proposition. It will be realized through the following innovations:
   • Policy and legal framework for IM will enable integration of IM policy and law into a coherent legislative foundation for an IM Program that supports business agility and growth.
   • Strategic design and planning for enterprise IM will promulgate a shared and comprehensive strategic design and plan for information management for the 21st Century throughout the federal government, and will maintain it over time.
   • Enterprise IM Governance will provide a common governance framework and enhanced roles for CIOs both at the GC and departmental levels.
   • Institutionalized IM accountability, responsibility and authority will ensure that all information management services and associated organizational roles are explicitly defined and that all positions created in the GC refer to those roles.
   • Federated governance of information will promote a culture of “privacy protective” information sharing across all levels of government.
   • Embedded IM change will link the majority of IM change directly to business changes driven by government priorities.
   • Measuring IM Performance will see a standard set of metrics for IM being used to measure the IM Program’s contribution to the GC’s business.
   • Demonstrating the Case for IM will establish how improved IM contributes to better decision-making, business outcomes and government priorities.
   • Return on information will assign financial value to the information assets of the GC.
   • IM context renewal will ensure that IT change initiatives that support IM outcomes are formulated in terms of contribution to those IM outcomes.

Innovation is required in two additional areas of improvement to ensure that effective tools and a community of motivated, skilled people are available to support information handling, promulgate rules and practices, and manage the IM program. These are as follows:

1. Mature IM Capability and Sustained IM Capacity, realized through the following innovations:
   • Integrated IM training will see IM training embedded in other required training, addressing information management knowledge, skills, practice, policy and legal obligations that are relevant to employees’ jobs.
   • Established IM professional group will enhance the current GC classification structure with a set of job classification and competency standards for IM professionals.
   • Sustained HR capacity will make sufficient human resources available to all programs to ensure that appropriate information management process responsibilities are fully exercised.
   • IM toolkit will have in place a complete, integrated suite of easy-to-use, scalable IM tools that are affordable for all departments and agencies.
   • Employee IM toolkit will make accessible to all Government of Canada employees the IM tools, responsibilities and legal obligations, best practices, training tailor-able to their individual needs and an inventory of information assets in the GC so they can readily carry out their IM process responsibilities.
   • Enterprise information packaging will provide a set of standard, reusable information packaging processes that operate at the level of the GC enterprise.
   
   
   
2. Well-developed IM Community and Culture, realized through the following innovations:
   • IM Community Management will implement a set of services to support the creation, management and interrelationship of IM communities within and across GC organizations and across other levels of government in Canada.
   • IM incentives for government employees will reward contributions to IM Program outcomes and good IM practices.
   • IM speaks with one voice will provide a consistent and comprehensive promotion and awareness program for IM in the GC.

The Vision for IM will have been achieved when the Government of Canada sees:

• Consistent and immediate availability of accurate, timely, complete and useful information needed for service delivery, program management and tracing decisions and processes.
• Appropriate access to and a significant reduction in the loss, corruption, and misuse of information.
• Information interoperability across programs and jurisdictions, and with collaborators in the not-for-profit/voluntary and private sectors.
• A significant reduction in the cost of, and time required for integrating information and information handling processes across services.
• The ability, across government, to view and easily aggregate information assets on demand.
• A significant reduction in the cost of and time required to effect changes to information holdings and associated processes.
• A significant increase in the confidence of the integrity of government reports.
• A significant improvement in the ease with which program clients/Canadians can realize their information-related rights (e.g. access to information, control over personal information, etc.) in doing business and interacting with the government. 

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