Ontario in the Digital Age

8 convergence: ontario Ontario

IN THE DIGITAL AGE

By Susanne Bergmann // Freelance Writer

In 2018, the Ontario's digital plan (the Plan), “Start with users. Deliver together. Ontario’s path to simpler, faster, better,” 1 was published. Within the scope of the Ontario Digital Service, the Plan is designed to deliver simpler, faster and better endtoend services within a peoplecentred government, provide a consistent, inclusive and delightful experience online, and increase opportunities for savings.

The Plan is timely, given the expansion of online services and their use, and the facts speak for themselves:

› Some 92% of Ontarians use the Internet;2 › There are more than 175,000 daily visits to Ontario.ca; › A total of 66% of Canadians believe technology saves them time.3

The Plan is based on guiding principles that drive the work of the roughly 60,000 people striving to bring digital opportunities to all levels of government.

THE FIVE GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR A CONSISTENT, INCLUSIVE AND DELIGHTFUL EXPERIENCE

1

› People are at the centre of service and policy design, actively participating in government program development by telling us what they need and will use.

2

› People have a common way to identify who they are when they interact with us online through a single digital identity across government.

3

› People don’t have to inform multiple ministries every time they move or change information—government uses a

‘tell us once’ approach to data and information.

4

› People have an easier time completing a task with government because common transactional elements are in place for all online services (e.g., payments, notifications, etc.), and designed to be interchangeable and built with open standards.

5

› People can track the progress we’re making because open performance metrics are available online for all services.

1 Government of Ontario, “Start with users. Deliver together.,” last modified January 12, 2021, https://www.ontario.ca/page/start-users-deliver-together. 2 Statistics Canada, “The Internet and Digital Technology,” last modified November 14, 2017, https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2017032-eng.htm. 3 Statistics Canada, “Life in the fast lane: How are Canadians managing?, 2016,” last modified November 27, 2017, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/171114/dq171114a-eng.htm.

SPARKING A NEW VISION

For Ontario's digital plan, becoming digital means being peoplecentric and results driven, exemplifying a new way of delivering products, services and outcomes that are based on meeting enduser needs.

This vision includes the following:

People-centered services and programs: At the heart of this vision are simpler, faster and better online services for the people, communities and businesses of Ontario.

Inclusion, equity and access: In a digitally inclusive Ontario, all people can access and benefit from digital technologies in their lives — regardless of skill, ability, location or socio economic situation. Only 62% of Ontarians in the lowest income quartile have access to the Internet at home, compared to 93% in the highest income quartile.4

Government as a platform: The government’s goal is for the Ontario.ca platform to become a single destination for government information and services.

A new kind of leadership: Digital organizations are open and collaborative. In the Internet age, digital literacy has become an essential leadership skill. Leaders with technical expertise in Internetera practices and approaches need to be cultivated and empowered.

Partnering with digital suppliers: Procurement must become more flexible in the digital age. This is needed to enable speed and agility, and to ensure that any online product or service that is built can be changed as user needs shift or technologies evolve.

Mobilizing innovation: Ontario is an internationally recognized technology hub, an innovation ecosystem designed for nextgeneration startups and global companies. The province ranks second in North America in the number of information and communication technology (ICT) establishments.

Code for Canada: In 2017, Ontario cofounded Code for Canada, a new notforprofit organization that connects government innovators with the technology and design community to build better digital services for people. The province’s inaugural fellowship team is working with the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development to build a digital tool that improves the adult education experience and makes it easier for learners to navigate the adult education system.

Specialized talent: As a diverse organization, we need to recruit for newer indemand skills in specialist domains that are underrepresented (or not represented) in government at large. Creating new pipelines and partnerships to inject these skills governmentwide will help to speed up change, and provide new opportunities to deliver digital products and services.

Service design at the Ontario Digital Service (ODS) Lab: In 2017, the provincial government opened the Ontario Digital Service (ODS) Lab at the Communitech Hub, in the heart of the Waterloo Region’s innovation and technology community. The lab operates as a dedicated space for experience design and user research, inspiring public service teams to start with users, and think and work in more digital ways.

PROGRESS CONTINUES5

Ontario’s April 2019 Digital Plan includes the new Simpler, Faster, Better Services Act, 2019,6 and amendments to a number of other pieces of legislation.

The government is also removing barriers to digital service delivery by updating 15 pieces of legislation and five regulations that currently require paperbased processes or formats.

The initiative includes improving the government's digital platforms to make highvolume services that are already available online easier to use and putting more services available online. The government is starting with enhancing ServiceOntario's top 10 transactions.

This makes Ontario the first province in Canada to implement a digitallydriven approach to government. t

4 Canadian Internet Use Survey by location of use, age group, household income and geography (table 358-0154), Statistics Canada (2012). 5 Government of Ontario, “Ontario Delivers Simpler, Faster, Better Services for Ontarians with New Digital Plan,” last modified April 30, 2019, https://news.ontario.ca/en/backgrounder/52026/ ontario-delivers-simpler-faster-better-services-for-ontarians-with-new-digital-plan. 6 Legislative enactment available at https://www.ontario.ca/fr/lois/loi/19s07.