Nine out of ten government organizations in Canada have already started digital transformation or are planning to start soon. The goal: to prioritize digital services that are valued by the taxpayer. The Risk: Recreating the SAAQClic site debacle and increasing Canada’s digital public debt.

“Any way you look at it, governments are at a point of no return,” said Patrick Drolet, chief operating officer of Portage CyberTech in Gatineau. “New online solutions are available, adding to the already enormous technological debt. In addition, when governments introduce new proprietary solutions, their debt increases. »

Portage CyberTech is a company specializing in cybersecurity services for public entities that has just received an 8 million loan from the Quebec government to ensure its growth. Some of his clientele belong to the Canadian government apparatus.

“Digital debt” or “technology debt” increases within an organization when software or technology is added to solutions that need to continue to be supported despite their obsolescence. For example, if the Quebec government replaces the ClicSequr authentication tool with a new tool, there will be a transition period in which the two systems will coexist.

When several competing systems co-exist, it is necessary to continue maintaining them all, which requires the addition of human, financial and technological resources. The result is that this debt still puts a little more strain on the system, rather than making it more efficient and affordable.

“There is an acceleration of digital transformation in governments. It has to be handled responsibly. Compliance with current and future laws and standards would already raise the bar,” says Patrick Drolet.

Very rare resources

The human aspect of this debt makes Patrick Drolet particularly flinch. Long before the pandemic, it had been difficult to find and hire people specialized in technology capable of managing and ensuring the security of the systems already in place in public organizations, he says. Not to mention the new systems that will soon replace them.

“New resources are not being added quickly enough to service all new digital projects,” adds Mr. Drolet. “We need to make sure we’re making sustainable digital transformations – we need to get more serious about finding those who ensure good governance – and that it’s about more than words,” particularly with regard to respect for the law and privacy.

One way to avoid a possible slip is to consider now the additional restrictions related to the management of personal information and digital data that are being imposed by state and federal laws. In Quebec, Law 25 imposes personal data requirements that require companies to notify the Quebec Commission d’accès à l’information (CAI) at least 60 days before creating a biometric database (fingerprints, etc.).

The federal law on the protection of personal data and electronic documents will add its own requirements when it becomes effective.

The advantage of online services is that they are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and anywhere in the area. Basically, they benefit more people who live farther from government offices. Once these services are activated, these switches’ own service offerings may be reduced.

This strategy is likely to be adopted by several government agencies. A survey released earlier this spring by IDC shows that a third of the country’s public sector agencies intend to become “digital first” agencies. This is one way to reduce your operating costs.

Should these websites go down or suffer a security breach, public services would be even less accessible. Again, the risk is not zero that events like the SAAQClic site launch could reoccur. The site was intended to speed up the renewal of vehicle registration and driving documents, but a cumbersome registration process and higher-than-expected demand crippled the platform for days, rendering it virtually inoperable for final users.

However, according to IDC, 93% of government workers surveyed still fear not only that such a mistake is occurring in their organization, but also that they don’t have the resources to deal with it.

Unsurprisingly, according to the same respondents, ensuring computer systems are secure without increasing that famous digital debt tops the list of things to consider when starting the digital transformation of public services.

To see in the video