The fourth open data principle – Releasing Data for Improved Governance – directs the government to share expertise and be transparent about its data collection, standards and publishing processes. The Committee heard from several witnesses that open data can create value within government in terms of enhanced governance, increased efficiencies and citizen engagement.

A. Enhanced governance

The CIO of the Government of Canada told the Committee that, “we're strong believers that open data helps to reinforce accountability and the government's agenda.” In addition, several witnesses also highlighted the importance of open data in relation to good governance. For example, Ms. Ubaldi commented that with open data, there is governance value, or political value, that is created, linked to “the fight for higher transparency, higher accountability, and higher responsibility of governments.” She later added that open data “has an impact of changing the way the government conceives a number of actions, ranging from policy making to service delivery.”

Several witnesses noted that open data is not an end product. Instead, it should be considered core infrastructure and governments should be using it to make good decisions. A representative for the Government of British Columbia stated that users want the government to use their own data as a signal of their commitment to enhance the data. A representative for the Government of Ontario noted that when public servants review open data, they are in a position to question missing data or anomalies, which improves the quality of the data. Industry representatives Mr. Sharma and Mr. McKay, and Paul Baker, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Open Data Institute, each suggested that open data would help increase productivity within the government, in particular by increasing information available to public servants, decreasing duplication of work and increasing feedback from the public. A representative from the Government of British Columbia explained that with open data, “[g]overnment can make more evidence-based decisions about programs and policies and use the data in its own services [to] improve results for taxpayers.”

In terms of government expenditures, one international best practice is to publish detailed spending data. In the U.K., all spending data down to £500 (approximately CA$913) is downloadable and publicly available. According to Mr. Eaves, this has been interesting to the public, but more so it has been interesting to public servants within that government.

B. Efficiencies within government

According to a TBS official, the value creation related to improved governance is demonstrated through the “increased collaboration on the development of datasets specifically that meet multiple mandates from different departments.” He explained that the federal government has realized efficiencies in the management of the data, because instead of the same dataset being maintained and managed in multiple departments, it will be managed in one place.

Several witnesses noted that public servants represent a significant proportion of open government data users. Mr. Eaves noted that “roughly 30% of the users of an open data portal come from computers that are located within the government that made that open data available.” This estimate was further supported by a representative from the Government of Ontario who commented that, “experience has shown that the number one users of government data are the public servants in that jurisdiction [and n]umber two are public servants elsewhere.” A TBS official noted that provincial and municipal employees are a significant user of federal open data. As well, in terms of federal use, he suggested that “some of the more generic, underlying foundational data sets like census data or geospatial data are really of more significant use to multiple departments, because [that data] can be used to augment the information [those departments] already have in many different ways.”

In fact, according to some witnesses, the data that government creates is most useful to people who work within government. Mr. Eaves suggested that “there are huge opportunities in reshaping how public servants work with one another and in using open data to vastly improve the efficiency and productivity of public servants.” He explained that before the open data portal, if a public servant wanted a specific dataset from another department, that individual might have to go through multiples levels of approval to get access to the data. With open government data, a barrier has been removed and public servants can get access to the data in a more timely manner. As a result, Mr. Eaves posited that there is an “opportunity for open data to dramatically improve analysis and productivity” and that “the productivity opportunities within government […] are quite significant.”

Mr. Eaves suggested that transparency and open data can drive a particular policy agenda. Based on an example from the U.S., he explained to the Committee that “if you want to drive a policy outcome of reducing health care costs, it turns out that publishing restaurant inspection results in a useful manner is a great way of driving that.” As another example, a TBS official mentioned the oil sands monitoring portal, a joint initiative between Environment Canada and the Government of Alberta, with a specific focus on open data. Meanwhile, according to the CIO of the Government of Canada, sharing scientific data is very important on the international front.

C. Engaging citizens

In terms of assessing the value of Canada’s open data policies, Mr. Eaves noted that a key question is: “Where are the things that make government transparent so that citizens themselves can better understand and make government more legible, so they can become more engaged in the political process and contribute in interesting ways in the policy debates?” According to Ginny Dybenko, Executive Director of the University of Waterloo's Stratford Campus, “lack of engagement of the citizenry is the biggest challenge that government faces today.” She added, “I would see open data as a very useful tool to not only speak to the electorate but also to get opinion[s] from them, and in doing so to get them involved in government affairs.”

According to Mr. Gayler, open data itself is not an end point. Rather, “[i]t's an enabler particularly for citizen engagement, getting citizens actively involved and participating in the business of government.” He added that “it's important that the government provide a framework to encourage parties to collaborate around the sharing and reuse of open data – private-public partnerships, for example – and particularly engage those parts of the citizenry with whom perhaps we are not already engaged and get them actively involved in the business of government.” According to him, “this is where we see this going: an increase in data, the increase and ubiquity of technology, engaging consumers and crowdsourcing to enable government to engage and make better decisions.”

With respect to data for improved governance, the Committee recommends that:

RECOMMENDATION 20

The Government of Canada establish performance measures to evaluate its implementation of open data in line with its commitments under the G8 Open Data Charter and its membership in the Open Government Partnership, and include these performance measures in departmental reports on plans and priorities and departmental performance reports.