The Policy, Politics and Governance Series
In the first decade of this century, governments across OECD countries were preoccupied with a new and emerging range of tools and techniques, from Internet technologies to community partnerships. They appeared poised to transform how modern government work, what they do, and how they make decisions. Learning to use these tools and techniques well was a priority for politicians and public servants. This series was launched as part of the Crossing Boundaries Project to support informed debate, strong leadership, and good decision-making among Canadian political and public service leaders.
Volume I: Information as a Public Resource: Leading Canadians into the Information Age
Modern governments contain huge amounts of data and information, which they currently store in a host of separate systems. Increasingly, e-government will penetrate these systems, liberating much of the information from its isolation and obscurity. This paper, written by Don Lenihan, CEO of Crossing Boundaries, and Tony Valeri, MP for Stoney Creek, examines how governments could balance the demand that they liberate their information holdings with the demand that they provide more reliable, authoritative information.
Volume 2: Horizontal Government: The Next Step
This paper, written by Donald Lenihan, CEO of Crossing Boundaries, and Tony Valeri, MP for Stoney Creek, sketches some of the emerging links between planning and reporting, policy development and coordination, and the program delivery. It identifies a critical next step along the path to realizing the results agenda and discusses some issues and challenges around a proposal to develop an alternative to funding.
Volumes 3 – 6 of this series focus specifically on the issue of government accountability and aim at promoting discussion of new ideas and issues around accountabilities for results. These publications were developed in consultation with politicians, public servants, and journalists, and were sponsored by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Environment Canada, the Office of the Auditor General and Treasury Board Secretariat.
Volume 3: Results Reporting, Parliament, and Public Debate: What’s New in Accountability
This paper was the first in a series of three papers on government accountability by Donald Lenihan, CEO of Crossing Boundaries, John Godfrey, M.P. for Don Valley West and John Williams, M.P. for St. Albert. It explains how accountability has been understood in the past and how results-based accountability differs from it. The paper goes on to assess some of the challenges and opportunities the new trend poses for government, democracy, and public debate in Canada.
Volume 4: Accountability for Learning
Authored by Donald Lenihan, CEO of Crossing Boundaries, John Godfrey, M.P. for Don Valley West, Tony Valeri, M.P. for Stoney Creek and John Williams, M.P. for St. Albert, this paper explores the challenges to learning created by our current model of accountability, the importance of government being accountable for its leaning, and some practical steps that will help the public policy community reach this goal.
Volume 5: What is Shared Accountability?
Authored by Donald Lenihan, CEO of Crossing Boundaries, John Godfrey, M.P. for Don Valley West, Tony Valeri, M.P. for Stoney Creek, and John Williams, M.P. for St. Albert, this paper considers what a collaborative model of accountability might look like, how it might work, and what impact it might have on ministerial accountability.
Volume 6: From Ideas to Action: Toward Seamless Government
In the coming years, government will be investing millions of dollars to put in place the information technology infrastructure and integrated service delivery processes necessary to make citizen-centred, seamless government a reality. Yet to be successful, innovative approaches to procurement will be required. Authored by Maryantonett Flumian (Associate Deputy Minister, HRDC), Michelle d’Auray (Chief Information Officer, TBS), and Tony Valeri (M.P, for Stoney Creek), this paper opens discussions on options for and issues around creating new kinds of partnering relationships between government and the private sector to meet this challenge.
Volume 7: Finding an Aboriginal Digital Voice
A great deal has been written in recent years about the promise Information and Communications Technologies(ICTs) hold for better, more efficient, and more democratic government. This paper asks whether or not the general conception of e-government is relevant to, and fits the needs of, Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Volume 8: Democratic Renewal: Solutions in Search of a Problem
Many democratic renewal initiatives are taking hold across the country, However, these efforts are far from coordinated. In fact, there seem to be as many approaches to democratic reform and renewal as there are initiatives. Nevertheless, all are tapping into a collective desire to re-examine how government works for citizens and how citizens connect to their governments. Taken together, they can represent a national laboratory on civic engagement, one where the experiments could lead to a huge shift in how we define democracy for the future.
Volume 9: Putting Public Service in the Public Eye: Making the Political Case for Citizen-Centred Government
Getting and maintaining political attention for citizen-centred government is necessarry but challenging. True collaboration to achieve the seamless service that citizens demand means action and leadership from public servants and politicians. This paper explores why service improvement needs more attention from political leaders, and examines a new agreement that is a hopeful new development for achieving citizen-centred service.