Government of Canada through its departments and agencies provides various types of funding, loans and grants to various organizations to facilitate economic growth and development. Tax payers on the other hand have a common question to ask – where our tax money is going and what is the result?
For these to be addressed, an initiative can be developed where data/information on any funding disbursement from any agency of the Government of Canada would be released and visually displayed using open data standard. Open data/information on the recipients, amount, intended results, status, timeline etc. will make the process more transparent and the result more visible. This open, accessible set of data can be repurposed vertically using funder, receiver matrix and horizontally using the thematic areas, regions, economic clusters etc. UN guideline on ‘Open Government Data for Citizen Engagement’ says ‘open government requires open data as a precondition and enabler’ and this data needs to be technically and legally open. Canada has come a long way on the legal side of opening the data and by releasing open data on funding, Government can technically open the data in an area that is high on demand and can encourage development of applications. International Aid Transparency Network is a successful case study that did similar work on aid disbursement to the developing countries.