Canadians’ ideas about the federal government’s ability to make policy and deliver services in the digital era are often at odds with those of public servants, according to a survey monitoring their conversations online.

Both groups agree the government has to raise its game to remain relevant, but a new longitudinal survey — led by the Institute on Governance — shows they have very different views on why government is ill-prepared and how to turn it around.

Public servants say government isn’t ready for a digital world because its processes and procedures get in the way while Canadians generally point the finger at public servants for being “too narrow in their thinking” and not very creative or innovative.

Both say the government faces ‘institutional’ barriers to modernizing services but are odds over what causes those obstacles. The public thinks the biggest barrier is the bureaucracy itself, while public servants blame “their obligations and mandates under the government” and believe they are powerless to make needed changes.

This dichotomy was revealed on a range of issues tracked in a survey conducted by Advanced Symbolics, which uses artificial intelligence rather than polls to monitor public opinion.

The survey mined data on millions of discussions on social media and found a major ‘perception gap’ between Canadians and public servants on key issues: privacy, security, openness, consultations, regulation, online services and policy-making in government.

Governments around the world are grappling with how to adapt to new digital technologies that have raised the bar on citizen expectations, challenging the top-down, rules-based culture of the public service and changing the nature of accountability.

The survey sampled the opinions of 88,400 Canadians and 900 public servants based on what they were saying on social media between January and May.

The Liberals are big on consulting Canadians and the survey found public servants were hugely enthusiastic about consulting people with new digital tools: three quarters of them believe digital tools improve consultation.

There were some demographic gaps, however. That enthusiasm waned among older workers, especially those over age 55 — not because of the technology but rather because they questioned how much difference hearing from more people would make to the public’s perception of the democratic process over the long run.

But this enthusiasm for consultation isn’t catching on with the public. In fact, public servants are four times as likely to be engaged with the consultation process than Canadians.

One area of common ground is that that both public servants and Canadians believe digital tools help decision-making. The strongest adherents to that idea are older bureaucrats, who — contrary to common perceptions — are comfortable with technology and believe it can help them do their jobs.

The two groups, however, are poles apart when it comes to views about the ‘sharing economy’, where technology has turned regulated markets and consumer behavior upside down with companies like Uber and Airbnb.

Public servants are more likely to think they are managing this regulation gap compared to Canadians, who think the government is lagging behind. About one third of Canadians don’t believe the government is ready for the sharing economy, compared to less than 10 per cent of public servants.

Technology and big data have also turned the world of policy-making on its ear, and public servants are scrambling to adapt the way they develop policy. The survey found 74 per cent of public servants tracked on this topic strongly felt the way policy is made has to change, compared to only 57 per cent of Canadians.

The survey also found Canadians don’t appreciate the challenges public servants face in developing policy, and chalk up any delays to a “slow-moving” and “archaic” public service.

There survey found a significant gap in perceptions about services. About 45 per cent of bureaucrats say they are meeting public expectations, while nearly half of the wider population is dissatisfied with government services.

The survey also monitored how the public felt about the quality of services provided by the private sector; 52 per cent they were satisfied. A similar percentage of public servants felt the private sector meets their expectations, suggesting the public service rates their ability to provide services as the same as the private sector.

Public servants also are keener on developing mobile applications than Canadians are about using them. About 70 per cent of public servants were excited about mobile applications. Canadians, however, aren’t as enthused about mobile: 49 per cent want online and 52 per cent want mobile services.

Privacy and security are big worries among senior bureaucrats. The public, however, seems to think the government is doing a much better job than the government thinks it is doing. More than one-third of public servants believe they could do a better job protecting Canadians’ online privacy, compared to 15 per cent of the public.