Information Management in the Government of Canada - A Situation Analysis

2. The IM Landscape

Information is the fuel driving government programs and services. In Canada's knowledge-based society the quality, integrity and ongoing accessibility of information, including that produced in the public sector, is crucial. As the government moves towards the electronic web-enabled delivery of its programs and services significant opportunities will emerge to enhance the ability of Canadians to access government information and move beyond traditional ways of locating, accessing, and retrieving government information. Innovative approaches to ensuring the authenticity, integrity, and reliability of information, especially personal information, for as long as the information is required are also possible but only if "out-of-the-box" thinking is used to fully lever what the emerging technologies have to offer. To make this vision a reality, government will have to create a culture across the public service which values information and the role it plays in supporting a citizen-state interaction founded on trust and respect.

In an increasingly electronic environment, however, the ability of the government to create, use and preserve information effectively to support decision-making, program/service delivery, and accountability is being challenged. Getting the right information (regardless of its physical form) to the right person or persons, at the right time, in the right form and format, at a reasonable cost is a generally accepted principle that is becoming difficult to operationalize.

The challenge to government is in articulating the IM issues and recommendations such that they can be understood within a relevant and clearly understood context. An Information Management Infrastructure is described in the Report to give expression to that context. The infrastructure is based on a citizen-centered business view of government where it is recognized that the products of government programs and activities (as generated through defined business processes) are nearly always in the form of information which itself may be recorded in a variety of physical forms - from paper (e.g. a license) to electronic (e.g. the results of statistical analysis reported on a computer screen). According to the proposed infrastructure, three types of activities are performed on information regardless of its physical form - "creation", "use", and "preservation", each of which (and in combination) is supported by an infrastructure of laws and policies, standards and practices, systems, and people encapsulated within a framework of enhanced awareness and assigned accountability.