The federal government is creating a new agency to scale technologies in the public service, as Prime Minister Mark Carney continues to reshape the federal bureaucracy.
The organization, Digital Transformation Canada, will lead efforts to equip public servants with new emerging tools, and look to use the government’s purchasing power “more strategically to help Canadian digital and AI companies test, scale, and commercialise (sic) new technologies,” according to a Sept. 3 news release.
“Canada’s future prosperity will be built by those who innovate, adopt new technologies, and move quickly to seize new opportunities. Digital Transformation Canada will ensure the federal government leads by example,” Carney said in the news release.
Canada’s future prosperity will be built by those who innovate, adopt new technologies, and move quickly to seize new opportunities
Prime Minister Mark Carney
The new agency, which will be under the purview of Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound, is the latest of several organizations Carney has created outside of longstanding departments and that are spearheaded by leaders who are not career bureaucrats.
Carney has tapped a former Google executive, Patrick Pichette to become the office’s first CEO.
Pichette was the Chief Financial Officer of Google from 2008 to 2015 and also spent time at Bell Canada, McKinsey and Sprint Canada.
Pichette will now be tasked with three priorities from Carney, according to the government news release.
The first was to “scale shared solutions across government,” which will involve reducing operating costs, improving the use of AI and strengthening Canada’s digital sovereignty while “improving Canadians’ experience with federal services.”
Patrick Pichette has been chosen to lead Digital Transformation Canada. Photo by Dario Ayala/Postmedia
The second was to “equip public servants with more modern, secure tools” to help reduce administrative burden and “improve efficiency.”
The third was to “use the Government of Canada’s purchasing power more strategically” to help Canadian technology companies scale and commercialize.
The last priority echoes efforts of other new agencies in procurement areas such as housing and defence to inject more support and capital into the private sector.
Carney will also use the new agency to bridge “private-sector expertise” into government for short-term assignments using a fellowship model.
“This model will focus on knowledge transfer – helping build the public service’s own technical capacity, commercial expertise, and ability to evaluate, procure, and deploy new technologies responsibly,” said the news release.
The organization will also look to remake the public service into a more “productive and results-focused” digital machine, according to the news release.
“By testing and scaling solutions that work, reducing duplication, and backing Canadian innovation, we will deliver better value for taxpayers and better services for Canadians, while helping Canadian technology companies grow at home and compete globally,” the news release said.
However, the turn to technological solutions arrives when most departments and agencies are slashing their operational budgets by billions of dollars over a number of years.
Most of those departments are looking to cut up to 15 per cent of their operating budgets, with thousands of federal public servants exiting the bureaucracy just as the federal government is looking to increase the use of AI in government tasks.
It raises questions about what services and tasks will be automated and what will be completed by humans going forward.
Related
Don’t let algorithms hide the follow-up. If you are tracking this story, make the Ottawa Citizen a preferred source so you get our live updates the next time you search.