University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist’s column in the Toronto Star this week makes for an important read. “Ottawa’s complete e-government failure” observes that just ten years ago, Canada was the top country for breadth and sophistication of electronic government services being offered. A decade later, Canada’s e-government rankings have declined, “a victim of astonishing neglect by the current Conservative government.”
Last week, the auditor general issued a scathing report on the state of e-government in Canada, noting the lost opportunities for reduced expenses and greater efficiencies as well as the complete absence of strategic vision.
The column got me thinking, once again, about lost opportunities caused by the government’s failure to release a cohesive national digital economy strategy. Three and a half years ago, shortly after the consultation was launched, I documented the consultation questions in a blog post “Succinct or superficial.” There were 24 questions organized under 5 themes plus 2 questions that might have inspired development of some kind of digital dashboard:
Improving Canada’s Digital Advantage
- Should we set targets for our made-in-Canada digital strategy? And if so, what should those targets be?
- What should the timelines be to reach these targets?
Over the summer, I wrote a piece called “Measuring success” that called for the government to take a look at measurable objectives and tracking against those objectives. I cited a Peter Drucker principle: “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
I would also refer back to a piece I wrote in late May that concluded “The lessons for Ottawa: Set clear objectives. Align activities with the achievement of those objectives. Stop doing things that are contrary to the objectives.”