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The federal government has opened its long-awaited “hub” of thinkers and policy wonks whose brainstorming could reshape the way policy is made and services are delivered in Canada.

The new Central Innovation Hub, which was promised in June 2013’s Blueprint 2020 roadmap to modernize Canada’s public service, officially opened Wednesday in a small office at 90 Sparks Street — a stone’s throw from its Privy Council Office mothership.

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Top bureaucrat and Privy Council Clerk Janice Charette tweeted that the hub was an “important milestone on the path to Blueprint 2020.”

The hub is a key piece of the Blueprint 2020 strategy to encourage innovation among Canada’s risk-averse bureaucrats.

The team will offer advice and expertise, and the ability to test the latest tools and ideas to help departments deal with thorny policy and service delivery issues.

The public service is in the midst of a major transition and Blueprint 2020 is the plan steering it into the digital age. Public servants are still managing major budget cuts, face an onslaught of new technologies and data and an unprecedented generational turnover of staff. At the same time, they face the demands of politicians for faster policy advice and Canadians for better services.