Leading Questions

How the Government of Canada is making progress on digital transformation

Leading Questions

Show Notes

On this episode of Leading Questions LIVE, Siobhan Benita speaks to Dominic Rochon, chief information officer for Canada.

They discuss Dominic’s broad mandate, which includes service delivery, security and privacy, as well as his current priorities such as improving digital services, enhancing cybersecurity, and modernising legacy systems. Dominic touches upon Canada’s past technological failures and controversies, and stresses the role of collaboration, both within government and with provincial governments and the private sector, to bring public services into a new era of human-centred service design. The conversation also covers how to professionalise the digital workforce and implement more agile procurement practices to keep pace with technological advancements.

“In the financial world…chief financial officers have to get certifications and have to keep those certifications up to date,” Rochon said. “In the federal government, that is not the case for the digital world. I'd like to explore how we get to that, particularly given how fast technology is evolving.”

He highlights how such an approach is particularly needed if government is to make the most of artificial intelligence, for example.

This episode also previews AccelerateGOV, Global Government Forum’s annual conference held in Ottawa, where digital leaders from around the world gather to discuss how governments can overcome challenges to realise the opportunities of digital transformation.

Listen to the podcast in full to hear about how Dominic is leading the way to making digital transformation happen.

Public servants can register free to attend AccelerateGOV, taking place at the Shaw Centre on 21 October. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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