AffinitiQuest digital credential platform to power Canadian federal govt ID services

The Canadian government has selected Ottawa-based identity software company AffinitiQuest to deliver a white-label version of its Digital Credential Orchestration Platform to the Canadian Digital Service (CDS) and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).

A news release says the service will be available for use by all federal government departments across Canada, to issue, manage, and verify digital credentials.

“This agreement represents a major milestone in the mission to transform Citizen Services using digital trust technologies,” says Ron Mac Donell, CEO of AffinitiQuest. “The federal government’s commitment to service delivery excellence and digitalization aligns perfectly with our platform’s capabilities.” The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, now in its ninth year, has a mandate to drive digital transformation across public services.

AffinitiQuest has been in “strategic collaboration” with the Government of Canada since 2021 through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) Testing Stream and Pathway to Commercialization programs.

Its platform leverages the ISO mDocs and W3C Verifiable Credentials global standards – the first to enable secure, verifiable digital documents on mobile devices; the second to provide a decentralized framework for issuing and verifying digital credentials.

Canada has been politely walking its way toward new trust frameworks on digital governance. In January 2024, the Digital Governance Council (DGC) of Canada rolled out a new standardized framework and trustmark to validate data integrity and security. Meanwhile, the Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) has sought public review and comment on its work in developing the authentication component of its Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF), which aims to define a baseline for interoperability of digital identity services in the private and public sectors.

Digital shift hindered by stale government thinking: Androsoff

There are some, however, who don’t believe the hype. Government Insider has an interview with Ryan Androsoff, who founded the Canadian Digital Service (CDS), in which Androsoff says “the basic operating principles of how government works have not necessarily evolved at the same pace as those on the digital side who are trying to update these practices.”

He laments the government’s unwillingness or inability to implement agile methodologies, which promote user research and iteration rather than turgid long-term planning. Rigidity, he says, is slowing down digital evolution. “It’s not enough to just have good digital apps or user-friendly websites if it’s going to be sustainable over time,” Androsoff says. “You have to change the way the bureaucracy works at a much deeper level.”

He points to the premature demise of the Ontario Digital Service (ODS), shut down by the provincial government in April 2024, as an example of a lack of vision on digital transformation. “It is a concerning sign to see an organization like that get dissolved because we’re in a time where that mission is as important as ever.”

Androsoff notes that Canada suffers the same kind of fragmentation in policy and regulation that plagues many other regions. In this case, advancements at the provincial level may not make it to the federal, making the development of digital public infrastructure cumbersome – a herd of blind moose trundling through the digital muskeg.

Article Topics

AffinitiQuest  |  Canada  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  government purchasing  |  identity orchestration  |  trust framework  |  verifiable credentials