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Canada Government

Canadian Government Services To Become 'Digital First' (www.cbc.ca) 55

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Canadians will soon be able to access and apply for more federal government services online -- from passports to payments, says Canada's first minister of citizens' services. From a report: Terry Beech says he's also open to innovation and using new technologies like artificial intelligence to improve the way the government delivers services to Canadians. "I think, fundamentally, it's my job to wake up every day thinking about how we're improving the customer service experience for Canadians," Beech said in an interview with CBC News. Beech's appointment to the newly created position comes as the government has been hammered in headlines and by the opposition in recent months over problems delivering basic services to Canadians. News reports have featured images of long lineups and people camping out to apply for passports. In the House of Commons, Conservative MPs have repeatedly talked about a "broken" government, saying lineups have been getting longer, backlogs bigger and services slower.
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Canadian Government Services To Become 'Digital First' More

Canadian Government Services To Become 'Digital First'

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  • Are they giving these overwhelmed departments more or less funding?

    • Pathetic tyrants. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politi... [www.cbc.ca]

    • So let me get this straight. Trudeau used the Emergencies Act which was enacted in 1988 to freeze bank accounts of people that funded a criminal organization?

      • What's the crime? Protesting the mask mandate? Using laws drafted for terrorism? What kind of dictatorship do you aspire to?

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by fluffernutter ( 1411889 )
          The crime was blocking public roads which endangered the people living in the area. Also keeping them awake all night by breaking nouse bylaws with horns. It was more an attempt to intimidate people by passively making their lives horrible than a protest.

          • So. Beyond public mischief that the leaders were charged with and havent been convicted of nor had a trial yet, but were kept in jail with no parole for months on end..

            Where are the charges ?

            The gorned stopped after the first week. Amazing that nlocking roads includes allowing traffic through. And businesses that stayed open were quite happy with the protestors.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by dskoll ( 99328 )

              It is illegal to block a public highway. Even if you keep a lane open, it's still illegal.

              Do you live in Ottawa? If businesses were so happy to have the criminal occupiers in town, perhaps you can explain why there's a huge $300M+ class-action lawsuit by downtown Ottawa residents and businesses against the criminal occupiers?

              • A crime without a trial? What kind of world do you live in? These people were sentenced by Trudeau because they dared speak up and protest when Trudeau threatened their livelihoods in the first place. What in the fucking fuck.
                • There were THREE LEVELS of police that were unable to do anything. Municipal, provincial and national. Canada could no longer protect Ottawa. It was right to call the emergencies act.

              • I asked a question in my post, you conveniently ignored that.

                What are the charges against them. No other protestor gets this treatment for blocking highways (which the truckers really didnt they blocked city streets) and were peaceful. Not something i can say about many protests in the last what.. 5+ years ?

                So.. again. What are the charges the truckers are being charged with ? I havent seen ANY charges beyond public mischief for the leaders, who were treated like war criminals in the canadian justice system

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Entrope ( 68843 )

            Can you imagine if Donald Trump did something similar to the people shouting "no justice, no peace" in US cities while rioting and looting was going on? Those protests made a truck convoy look downright polite in comparison.

            • Americans are kind of funny that way. They would rather allow absolute freedom than their own safety, because you cannot have both. I guess that's one reason why Canada has a longer average lifespan and gaining.

  • Waste of time (Score:3, Insightful)

    by John Smith 2319 ( 10449688 ) on Friday August 04, 2023 @04:34PM (#63741056)
    This is a waste of time for at least another 20 years. Canadians are too old and too computer illiterate. The majority of Canadians need their grandchildren to help them with email, let alone online forms. Trust me. I've been building online services in Canada for over a decade. Businesses and organizations want to appear modern and offer online services - but the customers cannot or will not use them. They can't cope with passwords (unless it's their facebook account). It is a waste of time.

    • You may enjoy one of my favorite movies, "Startup", it tracks a start-up hoping to automate all the touch points between government and its constituents.

      https://m.imdb.com/video/vi310... [imdb.com]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Troll much? I can't use my mod points, but please mark parent as troll.

      • It is a straight up statement of experience in the industry in Canada. If you want to take it like that, fine. Sorry if you don't like it, but as much I would like to, I cannot change the reality of it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dskoll ( 99328 )

          I've been in "the industry" (as in SW dev industry) in Canada for 33 years. For 19 of those, I ran a software company that provided software and services to organizations all over the world.

          In my experience, Canadians are no more computer-illiterate than people in any other first-world country.

          Maybe it's just that your software sucked? :)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bird ( 12361 )

      The armada of Amazon delivery vans that daily clog the streets of my Vancouver neighbourhood call into question whether you perhaps exaggerate a wee bit?

  • Really? (Score:1)

    by kenh ( 9056 )

    From a report: Terry Beech says he's also open to innovation and using new technologies like artificial intelligence to improve the way the government delivers services to Canadians.

    I'm curious exactly how "artificial intelligence" will help when applying for a passport or applying for government services?

    Sounds like he was just throwing buzzwords into his statement to sound good...

  • The Conservative government that preceded Trudeau went through the civil service with a wrecking ball. As usual, the Liberals weren't quick to repair the damage...but there was COVID somewhere in there.

    The Tory crocodile tears, though, are a bit much. Like conservatives all over the world, they play the same game: wreck government services, then point at the destruction and say, "Oh, look, here's proof government doesn't work."

    • Go work for any govt office, even California your liberal state. After 2 months tell me they deserve another penny of taxpayer dollars. Any place that gets free taxpayer money becomes lazy and corrupt. See the money comes in no matter what poor output they produce. It's almost impossible to get rid of an agency after it's created

      • That's absolute bullshit. Maybe you believe Americans don't know how to work and are always looking for a handout. I certainly don't believe that's true, but you obviously do. It's different in Canada. We're far from perfect, but we help each other and we work because just about every healthy person would rather be doing something than just lying around.

        As for your contention that no government agency is ever shut down, just last month, the government shut down the Cape Breton employment agency for inco

  • I think these service are old news in Europe (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lavandera ( 7308312 ) on Friday August 04, 2023 @05:33PM (#63741228)

    I am aware of at least 2 or 3 EU countries that allowed these services via Internet years ago.

    The Baltic sea region countries have quite a few digital government services for years.

  • Canadians are too old and too computer illiterate. This is a waste of time for at least another 20 years. The majority of Canadians need their grandchildren to help them with email, let alone online forms. Trust me. I've been building online services in Canada for over a decade. Businesses and organizations want to appear modern and offer online services - but the customers cannot or will not use them. They can't cope with passwords (unless it's their facebook account). It is a waste of time.

  • Canadian here.

    Our government is incompetent with online services.

    They actually named the new government payroll system "The Phoenix Project". Trust me - if you know, you know.

    • Having to deal with a number of government websites and government bodies in my job. Whoever they get to do their websites, and upkeep on their servers is definitely the LOWEST bidder. The one website is "down for maintenance" every other sunday. You know. A day the government isnt open, when we need the webpage up to conduct buisiness.. and cant call them to finish transations..
      Then during the week, i cant count the number of times the website goes down.

  • As a Canadian who hates standing in line, the idea of more services being online is hopeful. But the reality is tempered with unique to Canada requirements (not just software) that make adopting a commercial package complex. The systems I have encountered at both the federal and provincial levels are buggy and seem under-resourced, dont even try doing anything in prime time. And good luck getting anything that passes for support. But the part that really concerns me is that these are all wrapped with discla

  • Canadians will soon be able to increasingly frustrated trying to access and apply for more federal government services online.

  • I renewed my Canadian passport last month. It involved an in-person visit of about an hour to a nearby office followed by less than three weeks before the passport was delivered to my home via registered mail. If this is a broken government, bring it!

  • Did Parliament stop funding the offices or is it a management issue? If things work in Canada like they do in the US, nobody's budget ever gets cut, so it would then have to be a management issue.

    I suppose there is a third option, and that would be a huge uptick in people wanting to leave. Is it to go on vacation or escape a mismanaged government?

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