THE LITERACY AND BASIC SKILLS (LBS) PROGRAM: AN
Important Asset FOR USING DIGITAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES B y G u y L e v e s q u e / / P ro j e c t C o o rd i n a t o r , C O FA
In the last 30 years in Canada, and particularly in Ontario, digi tal strategies and policies for private and public sector services have been developed at the speed of light.
policies have been developed to put in place an architecture that meets the requirements related to data security and blocks any intrusion by digital hackers.
In the late 1990s, we first realized the importance of the digital infrastructure when people around the world were frightened that computers might stop working on December 31, 1999, before moving into the year 2000. Governments around the globe invested astronomical sums of money in their computer systems to ensure that their databases would continue to func tion in the new millennium and that data would not be erased.
In 2008, both levels of government offered the community sector financial incentives to transform websites into informa tion portals, accessible to all communities using the Web. Then, they had to accelerate the pace of digital transformation in the delivery of services and programs, as well as the collection and use of confidential data for public statistics, which leads us to the process adopted by these two levels of government.
Since this event, major transformations have occurred in the Canadian and Ontario governments, particularly in the deli very of programs and services in digital format. Strategies and
At the federal level, the Treasury Board Policy on Service and Digital was published as part of Canada’s 2018–2020 National Action Plan on Open Government.1 This action plan
1 Government of Canada, “Canada’s 2018-2020 National Action Plan on Open Government,” last modified September 18, 2019, accessed January 23, 2020, https://open.canada.ca/en/content/ canadas-2018-2020-national-action-plan-open-government.
