The Government of Canada is blindly rushing to merge all its web pages onto a single site. Some 16.5 million public web pages are being combined into a single user-centric site on a single technology platform. Corinne Charette laid down this challenge at GTEC in 2014 with the expectation that it would be completed this December.

This is no small undertaking. This drive to consolidate websites has stalled government web initiatives for years. This decision to centralize government communications has had profound impacts on the effectiveness of departments to do their job.

This drive was initially inspired by Alphagov, an experimental prototype built in 2011 by the UK's Government Digital Service (GDS). One of the findings of the GDS was that often citizens don’t know where to find government information, having a single go-to-point makes it easier for citizens to engage with government.

In the UK, a lot of good has come through the Alphagov process. Their Digital & Design Principles are great and have been successfully replicated by governments in USA & Australia. The user research work did a lot to help break down assumptions and actually build interfaces that meet the actual needs of their citizens. GDS's mandate is under the UK Cabinet Office. Having a focus on usability from the top made it a priority for the rest of the public sector.

We just haven’t seen this in Canada.

There are many reasons why Canada shouldn't attempt to simply replicate Alphagov. It’s not just that Canada is a considerably bigger country. The UK doesn’t have a federalist system, so government relationships are simpler. It should also be noted that UK is no longer aspiring to have a single website.

It is completely legitimate for government departments to build a their own site. Engaging effectively with citizens should be a key goal for government. It's sheer folly to assume a single site can meet all government communication requirements. No other national government does.

Despite the hype, Canada.ca has failed to produce a user-centric government platform.

The bigger problem though comes from the directive to adopt a single technology platform and provider. If the government had adopted an open-source platform it would have allowed for greater flexibility. Unfortunately the RFP didn't provide a preference for open tools and Adobe won the contract for Canada.ca. Adobe Experience Manager will be the CMS for Canada.ca. With this contract comes vendor lock-in over the publishing of all web content produced by the Government of Canada.

Adobe's initial proposal was for $1.54 million but spending on this project has already exceeded that. Thus far they are 9000 pages into an 16.5 million page transition. Government departments are being pressured to dramatically reduce the number of pages they are migrating. In the process, some critical information is being lost.

Given that they are just 0.05% through the migration and already 10 times over budget it is unclear when it will be finished or how much it will finally cost tax payers. If they were successful and were just a year late it wouldn't be so bad. The fact that they have barely touched the migration challenge is pretty deplorable. This is a terrible example of government procurement gone bad. What makes it even worse is the vendor lock-in and freezing our government’s ability to innovate.

Giving a monopoly for web content to any business is a bad idea. Adobe has no responsibility to provide value to Canadians. Their responsibility is clearly to maximize profits for their shareholders. How much would Adobe need to increase their rates before the government decides it has to switch platforms?

It is important to remember that the centralized, “enterprise” approach, wasn’t the only one available.

The government has a long history of using open-source tools. If the government had chosen to go with an open-source solution like Drupal they could have hired Canadian companies to have done the work.

The Government of Canada is the single largest employer of computer scientists in this country. This could have been a way to engage them in the innovation agenda that the Liberals are trying to kickstart. Government investments in open-source solutions can help drive innovation by Canadians. Open-source software allows small businesses to innovate to meet real needs of their clients.

Any definition of open government includes transparency & collaboration. It’s not just business as usual. Choosing Drupal would have facilitated cooperation with Ottawa.ca, Ontario.ca, WhiteHouse.gov, Energy.gov, France.fr, Australia.gov.au and thousands others. Drupal is driving ~3% of the internet. It takes real old-world thinking to ignore this and choose to outsource this work to an American company.

Many people are currently unhappy with the process and product for Canada.ca. Canadians do not need to continue throwing good money after bad. It's not a matter of if this implementation of Canada.ca will fail, but when.

If you want a modern, open government which is able to collaborate effectively with other jurisdictions with similar needs, reach out to your MP and let them know you’re not satisfied with “business as usual”.



