Canadian government plans public consultation on digital ID platform for public services

The Government of Canada is planning to launch public consultations on a digital ID framework for federal government services. The stakeholder engagement is part of a set of actions set out in a new strategy document.

‘Canada’s Digital Ambition 2022’ has been introduced to advance the previously-unveiled Digital Government Strategy. That program describes the Canadian government’s digital transformation plans.

The strategy document is composed by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS), and “consolidates previous priorities,” taking into account feedback from its various predecessors.

The page for the ‘Digital Operations Strategic Plan: 2021-2024,’ meanwhile, has been archived and will not be updated, the Treasury Board says.

Trusted digital identity is one of the pillars of the ambition, and being able to prove ID claims more quickly is a goal identified under priority 2.2, to “build and use secure common solutions for digital service delivery.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for government services to be accessible and flexible in the digital age,” the document reads. “The next step in making services more convenient to access is a federal Digital Identity Program, integrated with pre-existing provincial platforms.”

The document reiterates a Treasury Board mandate set in late-2021 to work towards a common digital identity platform for public services. It is to that end that the federal government is “launching public consultations on a federally managed digital identity framework,” and “developing a common and secure framework to digital identity.”

A federal Digital Identity Program to deal with online government interactions will also be established.

Canadian officials, including Treasury Board President Mona Fortier, made clear at the recent IdentityNorth summit that the country must step up its implementation of trustworthy digital ID.

Article Topics

Canada  |  digital economy  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  identity verification  |  interoperability  |  trust framework