Publishing and Depository Services Directorate: Open Information Presented by Chantal Akeson Queen’s Printers Association Conference, June 2016

Open Government Making data and information freely available to the public in a way that makes it easy to search, discover, and reuse. Applying an Open Government approach to government operations that fosters transparency, citizen engagement, and greater efficiencies in the use of government resources. Finding and using Government of Canada information and data to support accountability, facilitate value-added analysis, drive innovation and socio-economic benefits.

Open Government: Three Main Streams Open Information: proactively releasing information on government activities on an ongoing basis, making it more accessible to Canadians, and easier to find and reuse. Open Data: making raw data available in machine-readable formats to citizens, governments, not-for-profit, and private sector organizations to leverage it in innovative and value-added ways. Open Dialogue: giving Canadians an opportunity for two-way dialogue with the Government of Canada on federal policies and priorities.

Background on Open Government In 2012, the Government of Canada joined the Open Government Partnership. In June 2013, the Government of Canada endorsed the G8 Charter on Open Data. Launched in October 2014, open.canada.ca supports transparency by providing direct access to Government of Canada Open Government services in support of Open Data, Open Information, and to come…Open Dialogue. Directive on Open Government (http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?section=text&id=28108 )

Open Government Portal - open.canada.ca A Strategic, Enterprise-wide Approach: Launch Public-Facing Portal: establish a single, Government of Canada-wide service (open.canada.ca) via which “open” Government of Canada documents and data are easily searchable and downloadable. Establish Mandatory “Open by Default” Policy: embed open principles across government and require departments to identify and release “open” data and documents. Bring Consistency to the Publishing Process: develop and deploy the necessary infrastructure to support self-publishing of open data and information by departments via open.canada.ca portal. Innovate by Leveraging Existing Capacity: reuse, refine, and redeploy Government of Canada assets, resources, and infrastructure wherever in service of transparency goals and agendas.

What is Open Information Portal? Easy access to all of the Government of Canada’s information: Publications Documents The Open Information Portal is a valuable tool for all Canadians as it will contain published Government of Canada information (open.canada.ca). It will require a culture change to identify not only publications but documents that should be released.

Service Features A search tool for all government published or released information for public consumption including: Government contracts; Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) summaries; Proactive disclosures; Government-wide reporting.

Partnerships Who is involved in the Open Information Initiative? Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Public Services and Procurement Canada’s Publishing and Depository Services Directorate (PSPC)

Shared Responsibilities Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Public Services and Procurement Canada Library and Archives Canada Portal development and solutions management Oversight of document ingest and storing of “open” assets Management and curation of archive of Open Information assets PDSD has been given an extremely important role within the Open Information Portal and is proud to be working with Treasury Board of Canada, Library and Archives Canada and Statistic Canada in support of Open Information. Policy support and guidance to departments Provide support to departments and quality assurance

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat – Policy Reset Currently, the publishing requirement falls under Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s Procedures for Publishing. Expected in fall 2016, the publishing requirements will be moving from the Communications Policy to the Policy on Information Management. It will streamline and increase access to Government of Canada information resources.

PDSD’s Roles on Open Information Oversight of document ingest of Government of Canada documents intended for public consumption and support to departments. Support the publications service by ensuring that Canadians have a centralized access point to locate/download Government of Canada authored publications. Acquire, catalogue and uniquely identify Government of Canada publications in a central database that is searchable and available to the public. Assist Government of Canada departments as the culture shifts to open by default and guide them through metadata applications. Correct and improve metadata to improve discoverability.

Open Information Format Language challenges Inventories

PDSD’s Information Technology Improvements New Integrated Library System. New cloud solution to support quickly scaleable technology. New tracking and reporting system to identify trends and areas for improvement. Improvements to the Weekly Acquisition List to meet variable stakeholder requirements.

Increasing demands for PDSD’s cataloguing services PDSD catalogued close to 35, 000 publications in 2015-2016.

Digitization Reduced Web Presence for government departments: Drive towards digitization of information assets previously only available in print format. Web Renewal Initiative – alternate information options. Dominion Bureau of Statistics (117,000 titles) Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (9,000 titles) With Web Renewal, departments and agencies will have substantially reduced web presence resulting in a drive towards digitization of existing information assets. PDSD has already received sizeable collections from various departments including Dominion Bureau of Statistics (117 000) currently named Statistics Canada. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has approximately 9,000 documents to send to PDSD. Outreach activities with various departments to encourage sending all digitized material to PDSD.

Questions for my QPA colleagues How does your province deal with accessibility requirements? Does your province proactively translate access to information responses?

Collaboration We are working collaboratively (TBS/LAC/PSPC) to capture the needs of our stakeholder community. Do you want to weigh in? You can, by visiting the following link: http://open.canada.ca/en/forms/contact-us

Questions? Contact us publications@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca publications.acquisitions@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca