Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat: Open Government Implementation Plan

Table of Contents

• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Approvals
• 3. Purpose
• 4. Context
• 5. Outcomes
• 6. Governance Structures and Decision Processes
  • 6.1. Roles and Responsibilities: Deputy Head and Information Management Senior Official
  • 6.2. Roles and Responsibilities: Key Stakeholders
  • 6.3. Departmental Communications, Awareness and Engagement
• 7. Planning Table
• Appendix: List of Published Datasets

1. Executive Summary

Canada has a longstanding commitment to openness and accountability as a cornerstone of a strong, modern democracy. From its passing of legislation on access to information in 1985 to its current activities in open government and proactive disclosure, the Government of Canada has worked to ensure transparency of federal operations to enable Canadians to hold their government accountable. The commitments set out in Canada's Action Plan on Open Government 2014–16 will further Canada's progress in delivering transparent and accountable programs and services that focus on the needs of Canadians.

Proactively releasing data and other information is the starting point for all open government activities. The Government of Canada has therefore established an "open by default" principle for its mandatory policy framework for open government by issuing the Directive on Open Government. In order to align with the goals of the Blueprint 2020 initiative,^{Footnote 1} all federal departments^{Footnote 2} must be in compliance with the directive by March 31, 2020 .

When the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat began to formalize its publishing process for open government, it had already published some datasets on the Government of Canada's Open Data Portal that are primarily derived from statistical tables in Secretariat publications. The Secretariat generates and collects rich information that demonstrates how government works and ensures value for money, creating datasets such as the Access to Information, the Employment Equity in the Public Service of Canada, the Population of the Federal Public Service by Department and the Authorities and Expenditures data TBS collects on behalf of all departments and agencies. All open government activities take place with the understanding that the Government of Canada must proactively identify and release all government information of business value, unless there are specific security and privacy exceptions.

The Secretariat's priorities for open government include:

• Governing all the Secretariat's publishing activities to be "open by default" while respecting government security and the privacy of Canadians for open government
• Identifying and review the Secretariat's new datasets and other information assets by maintaining inventories of business value.
• Preparing for direct transfers of the Secretariat's information and datasets of enduring value to Library and Archives Canada

Attached is the Secretariat's Open Government Implementation Plan which will be updated annually, with the next iteration to be published in fall 2016.

2. Approvals

3. Purpose

This document sets out theSecretariat's overall plan to complete activities and other deliverables to meet the requirements of the Directive on Open Government. All departments must fully comply with the directive by March 31, 2020.

The directive's objective is to "maximize the release of government information and data of business value to support transparency, accountability, citizen engagement, and socio-economic benefits through reuse, subject to applicable restrictions associated with privacy, confidentiality, and security".^{Footnote 3}

The expected results of the directive (as set out in section 5.2 of the directive) are that Canadians can find and use Government of Canada information and data to:

• support accountability of the government
• facilitate value-added analysis
• drive socio-economic benefits through reuse
• support meaningful engagement with the government

4. Context

The Secretariat is the administrative arm of the Treasury Board, and the President of the Treasury Board is the Minister responsible for the Secretariat. The Secretariat supports the Treasury Board by making recommendations and providing advice on program spending, regulations and management policies and directives, while respecting the primary responsibility of deputy heads in managing their departments and their roles as accounting officers before Parliament. In this way, the Secretariat strengthens how government is managed and helps ensure value for money in government spending and results for Canadians.^{Footnote 4}

The Secretariat is located in the National Capital Region and has 1,756 employees.^{Footnote 5} GCDocs, which was fully deployed at the Secretariat in 2013, is the Secretariat's official corporate repository for unstructured electronic information (i.e., information that is not in a database). The Secretariat had formerly used RDIMS (Records, Documents and Information Management System) since 2000 for managing its information. The Information Management and Technology Directorate (IMTD) of the Secretariat's Corporate Services Sector partners with Shared Services Canada (SSC) to manage the Secretariat's information infrastructure and networks. IMTD and SSC also support more than 140 applications and databases, most of which contain information resources of business value.

With its vision of "Better government: with partners, for Canadians", the Secretariat'smission is to:

• cultivate the federal public service as a model workplace where professional, skilled workers are trained and motivated to serve Canadians
• build management frameworks, support proactive risk management, and empower partners to manage resources and report results
• provide guidance so that resources are soundly managed across government, with a focus on results and value for money

As part of its vision, the Secretariat is responsible for designating open government websites, services, criteria and formats for departments' use, and for developing or designating open licences to departments.^{Footnote 6} The Secretariat also continues to implement Canada's Action Plan on Open Government on behalf of the Government of Canada.^{Footnote 7}

Information that the Secretariat collects is published in its Info Source series. Consulting the publications in this series will help determine to which department an Access to Information request should be sent. Through these Info Source publications, and by following its annual Open Government Implementation Plan, the Secretariat proactively releases its information, which reduces the need for Canadians to request such information.

The Secretariat is well positioned to comply with the Directive on Open Government because of its robust technological environment, the information architecture's guiding principle of making government information open by default, and the Secretariat's leadership in modernizing business processes to gain operational efficiencies. The Secretariat generates and collects rich information that demonstrates how government works and ensures value for money. The Access to Information dataset, the Employment Equity in the Public Service of Canada dataset, and the Population of the Federal Public Service by Department dataset are currently the Secretariat's top downloaded information sources. In addition, the Secretariat's Authorities and Expenditures dataset has been used to create an app that makes information on federal government expenditures easily available and usable.

5. Outcomes

Implementing the Open Government Implementation Plan will align the Secretariat's open government activities with the Government of Canada's commitments and priorities. Some benefits of this implementation are as follows:

• reducing costs for processing and releasing information when responding to Access to Information requests by adopting the "open by default" principle
• enabling the Secretariat's information to be used to help drive initiatives in innovation^{Footnote 8} across the government and for citizens
• ensuring that government data and other information is reused to eliminate duplication, effort and redundancy^{Footnote 9}
• increasing productivity and opportunities for collaboration by making the Secretariat's information publicly available^{Footnote 10}

6. Governance Structures and Decision Processes

TBS implementation plan

As part of the first year of the Open Government Implementation Plan, the Secretariat solidified its governance of open government activities, basing it on existing practices and processes. The Secretariat began by determining and implementing an approval process for publishing its information.

Over the next four years the Secretariat will ensure compliance of the Directive on Open Government requirements by:

1. Ensuring that release of data and information are in accessible formats and that all requirements are integrated in all new plans for data and information solutions by March 2016 :
   1. list acceptable formats and design process for release;
   2. define requirements to capture and integrate in processes.
2. Overseeing compliance monitoring activities and maximizing the release of data and information by March 2017 :
   1. define release schedule and identify criteria for prioritization;
   2. establish quarterly reporting process.
3. Maximizing the removal of access restrictions on data and information of enduring value prior to transfer for permanent retention: define methodology to remove access restrictions by March 2018 ;
4. Maintaining inventories of data and information of business value to help determine their eligibility and priority: establish inventories and implement update process by March 2019 ;
5. Updating the TBS implementation plan and posting annual updates: including the role of the working group to perform yearly updates by March 2020 ;

The following roles and responsibilities outline the governance structures and decision processes that support open government, and how these are delegated and fulfilled at the Secretariat.

6.1 Roles and Responsibilities: Deputy Head and Information Management Senior Official

Governance of the Secretariat's Open Government Implementation Plan is closely linked with the responsibilities of the department's Deputy Head and the department's Information Management Senior Official (IMSO), as set out in the Directive on Open Government:

The Secretary (as Deputy Head) is responsible to approve TBS' Open Government Implementation Plan by signing it and its annual updates and to champion the Open Government initiative within the Secretariat by promoting and supporting related activities.

The TBS Chief Information Officer/Information Management Senior Official is responsible to approve departmental datasets and other information for publication to the Government of Canada's Open Data Portal and ensure the systematic approvals are consistently performed, as set out in section 6.2 of the directive. As such, an approval process was defined and established to ensure consistency.

The TBS Chief Information Officer/Information Management Senior Official must ensure monitoring of the Secretariat's Open Government Implementation Plan to correct gaps in performance and compliance, and report significant performance and compliance issues to the Secretariat's Chief Information Officer Branch. To enable this, the IMSO will establish a quarterly reporting process.

The TBS Chief Information Officer/Information Management Senior Official must ensure that requirements of the Directive on Open Government are incorporated into all of the Secretariat's new plans for procuring, developing or modernizing departmental information applications, systems, or solutions in support of the delivering of programs and services. These requirements are now integrated in the project delivery model within Information Management and Technology Directorate (IMTD)'s operations.

6.2 Roles and Responsibilities: Key Stakeholders

The first year of the Secretariat's Open Government Implementation Plan will focus on three areas:

• creating an inventory of data and other information
• establishing a governance structure for the approval process for releasing information
• removing restrictions to access when records reach the end of their life.

The Secretariat's publication process, depicted by Figure 1 in three main components, will be used as a baseline to build implementation progresses:

1. Identification and Review of Datasets and Information Assets

   As open government activities at the Secretariat continue, the process for releasing information based on the Secretariat's inventory of data and other information will be further defined and refined:

   • business owners will identify the data and other information to be published
   • new data and other information created through the implementation of new IT Projects and Reporting, will be identified and collected for consideration to publishing on the TBS Open Government Portal.
   • an inventory of all remaining information assets for publication will be created and maintained.

2. Governance of All Secretariat Open Government Publishing Activities

   will be based on existing practices that will be refined as the Secretariat defines and operationalizes its open government processes.

3. Preparing for Transfers of Information of Enduring Value to Library and Archives Canada

Figure 1. The Secretariat's Publication Process for Datasets and Other Information - Text version

Identification and review:

Indentify:

1. Business owner
2. New IT project
3. Data and Information Inventory

Working group: Publish?

IF YES:

Publishing: policy centre/stakeholder review; ATIP, OL, Security, Media, Comms, Web need legal requirements review (if required) and are referred to Legal Services; publication preparation and formatting; IMTD, E-comms, Open Data; approval to publish CIO/IMSO.

IF NO:

Ready for transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Enterprise IM; Identify restrictions and remove; Business owner; Policy entre/stakeholder review; ATIP, OL, Security, Media, Comms, Web; Legal requirements review; Approval to remove restrictions or document exceptions (send to LAC).

Note: Dotted lines represent the future process for releasing the Secretariat's information.

To help implement all requirements, the Secretariat established its Departmental Open Government Working Group in late 2014. This working group comprises representatives of the Secretariat's Information Management and Technology Directorate (IMTD), the Secretariat's Access to Information and Privacy Office, Strategic Communications and Ministerial Affairs (SCMA), SCMA's Publishing and Corporate Identity Unit, data source business owners from the Expenditure Management Sector, and the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer. The working group is chaired by the Director of Applications, IMTD. As a strategic partner during implementation, a representative from the Chief Information Officer Branch policy area also attends the working group's meetings.

Table 2. Roles and Responsibilities

Role	Process Component	Responsibility
Business owners	Identification and Review	Consider which data and other information assets they are responsible for releasing by providing information (including exceptions for security or privacy concerns) to the Departmental Open Government Working Group for release.
	Transferring to LAC	Maximize the removal of access restrictions on departmental information resources of enduring value prior to transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) as part of planned disposition activities by working collaboratively with LAC to define and implement the process.
Enterprise Information Management Services	Identification and Review	Maintain an inventory of data and other information assets by creating and regularly maintaining an inventory of applications and databases that contain information of business value. Ensure that open government principles are considered when updating and creating new applications and databases by defining how to capture requirements at the onset of the process for project gating.
	Publishing	Create and update the Secretariat's Open Government Implementation Plan. The Chief of EIMS is responsible for enabling the Information Management Senior Official's approval process for publishing datasets.
	Transferring to LAC	Maximize the removal of access restrictions on departmental information resources of enduring value prior to transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) as part of planned disposition activities by working collaboratively with LAC to define and implement the process.
Client Portfolio Management or Project Delivery Office	Identification and Review	Ensure that open government requirements are integrated into processes for procurement and for developing and modernizing applications, systems and solutions by defining how to capture requirements and modify departmental templates to reflect additions.
Information Technology Services	Publishing	Recommend, design, develop and test tools to convert the Secretariat's information into machine-readable formats that comply with open data formats.
Departmental Open Government Working Group	Publishing	Provide recommendations to the Secretariat's Resourcing Committee on priorities for releasing information based on the Secretariat's inventory by meeting monthly to discuss progress, plans and issues regarding open government initiatives at the Secretariat. Oversee the implementation of open government requirements for any new plans to procure, develop or modernize information applications for the Secretariat's systems or solutions by ensuring timely approval for recommended prioritized release.
Access to Information and Privacy Office (Strategic Communications and Ministerial Affairs)	Publishing	Ensure compliance to Access to Information and Privacy acts and policies by reviewing all requests to publish data and other information as well as prior to transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) as part of planned disposition.
Official Languages (Human Resources Division)	Publishing	Ensure compliance to Official Languages acts and policies by reviewing all requests to publish data and other information as well as prior to transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) as part of planned disposition.
Communications	Publishing	Ensure compliance to Communication acts and policies by reviewing all requests to publish data and other information as well as prior to transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) as part of planned disposition.
Security Services	Publishing	Ensure compliance to Security acts and policies by reviewing all requests to publish data and other information as well as prior to transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) as part of planned disposition.
Legal Services	Publishing	Ensure compliance to Government acts and policies by reviewing all requests to publish data and other information as well as prior to transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) as part of planned disposition.
Web Services and E-Communications	Publishing	Ensure compliance to Web acts and policies by reviewing all requests to publish data and other information that is destined for the web as well as prior to transfer to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) as part of planned disposition.

6.3 Departmental Communications, Awareness and Engagement

High-Level Communications Plan

Communications Objectives

• Remind Secretariat employees of the requirements of the Directive on Open Government and of their responsibilities.
• Ensure that employees are kept informed of expectations of them and of the tools available during implementation (fall 2015 to March 2020 ) that support all activities concerning the Directive on Open Government.

Strategic Considerations

• The directive's timelines and objectives are consistent with Blueprint 2020, which calls for the public service to become "an open and networked environment that engages citizens and partners for the public good".^{Footnote 11} Messages about both initiatives shall be coordinated and shall be linked to the This is TBS initiative.
• As further details about the Secretariat's Open Government Implementation Plan become available, executive leadership shall be made aware of how the directive can advance their priorities. Leadership shall also communicate throughout the department that the directive is a priority.
• Throughout the implementation period (fall 2015 to March 2020 ), communications to employees shall be clear about their role and how they can be proactive in finding avenues to leverage open data and in seeking opportunities for communities that can use or complement open data.
• A briefing on the directive and how it affects the Secretariat shall be developed to help all departmental sectors and staff understand their responsibilities regarding open government (e.g., what they need to do in order to develop a dataset).

Key Messages

• Making data open by default allows the government to:
  • save time and money when responding to Access to Information Act requests
  • avoid duplicating internal research
  • take advantage of complementary datasets held by other departments
  • allow employees to make better-informed, data-driven decisions
• All data held by federal departments is to be open by default.
• The Directive on Open Government was issued in fall 2014 by the Secretary of the Treasury Board. As a mandatory Treasury Board policy instrument, the directive applies to departments as defined in section 2 of the Financial Administration Act.
• The directivewill be phased in over the next five years, providing time for departments to meet its requirements.
• Departments are required to develop their own Open Government Implementation Plans and publish them online.
• Questions about the Secretariat's Open Government Implementation Plan should be emailed to Services - IM and GCDocs Support / Soutien de la GI et de GCDocs.

Target Audiences

• Target audiences for communications about the directive include the following:
  • heavy data producers (e.g., the Governance, Planning and Policy Sector and the Expenditure Management Sector)
  • information management senior officials
  • all Secretariat employees

Communications Approach

• The Secretariat's Open Government Implementation Plan will be posted to open.canada.ca between October 31, 2015 , and March 31, 2016 (lead is Corporate Services Sector (CSS)).
• A message in TBS In-Brief will be published, and key messages will be prepared for managers to communicate to staff (leads are SCMA and CSS).
• Further communications tools and activities will be added as the plan is updated throughout the implementation period.

Evaluation

• There will be follow-up with managers via EX town halls and EXCO discussions to monitor whether the Secretariat is adequately supported in implementing its plan.

7. Planning Table

The following proposed work plan is based on the requirements of the Directive on Open Government.

Appendix: List of Published Datasets