Governments around the world are working to make digital transformation happen in order to improve services for citizens and support government priorities. This transformation is not just about implementing technology; it requires getting the right skills, culture, policies, and processes in place to capitalise on the benefits of data, AI, and digital tools
Following the AccelerateGOV conference in December, Global Government Forum produced a report focusing on how to scale what works and overcome barriers to digital transformation. It is based on panel sessions, presentations and discussions at Global Government Forum’s AccelerateGOV 2025 conference held in Ottawa in December, as well as a survey of 228 Canadian public servants registered for the event.
The first chapter of the report analysed the progress of digital transformation in the Government of Canada, while this second chapter examines the technological foundations of government.
While it’s clear that technology is in no way the only ingredient in digital transformation, it is the essential infrastructure that makes it possible.
Survey respondents ranked modern and flexible technology platforms second in the enablers for digital progress, with almost half (47%) saying they had been somewhat or highly effective in enabling their organisation’s digital progress to date.
Further, legacy systems and integration challenges ranked second in the top barriers to digital transformation, with 60% viewing them as a major or significant barrier.
Over a third (37%) described the maturity of their organisation’s technology infrastructure as developing, while 31% said it is established. Thirteen percent said it is integrated and the same percentage said it is early stage.
Boosting government technology
In an opening fireside chat at AccelerateGOV, Scott Jones, president, Shared Services Canada, clearly linked technology and architecture to improving citizen experience and internal efficiency and noted that this is limited by the way government is organised in separate departmental “verticals”. There’s a need to “connect that together horizontally” and “enable enterprise platforms”, he said. This will enable digital solutions to be scaled across departments and translated into better experiences for citizens, rather than remaining isolated within individual programmes.
He illustrated the impact of fragmented technology on citizens: “‘Tell me once’ does not mean having a call centre agent that has access to eight systems to change my address. It means having… a single point of truth for address,” adding that governments must align incentives to facilitate such changes.
During a session titled ‘Boosting the health of government’s technology’, speakers addressed technology-related issues head on.
This included discussion of a 2023 report from the auditor general which found that only 38% of the Government of Canada’s IT applications were considered “healthy”. This definition relates to factors including limited vendor support for application maintenance, an inability to integrate with other systems, outdated infrastructure, or security vulnerabilities.
Luc Gagnon, chief technology officer for the Government of Canada, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, said modernisation efforts are working “but we’re not going fast enough” and techniques like product management are needed.
“Don’t build a system for obsolescence; build a system so that it can evolve through time,” he said. This means rather than making one-off expensive replacements, governments can make continuous improvements and invest incrementally to keep digital services evolving.
“You can actually make decisions, build new features, get a bit more money than just the maintenance money that people go after for patches and get to a better place,” he said, concluding that: “We have the right foundation. We have to get better at it.”
Turning the ship
Dugald Topshee, chief service and digital officer, Transport Canada, said it’s important to understand which applications are critical and have the most impact, and also which ones take up significant resources to maintain.
He argued that the public sector tends to “linger too long and hold on to things that should have been killed a long time ago” and should be “ruthless” in deciding whether to tolerate, invest in, migrate, or eliminate systems.
Marc Coyle, director of technology, City of Belleville and representative to the Pan-Canadian Public Sector Chief Information Officer Council, outlined a practical framework for technology modernisation. He said that digital debt often develops because it is built into procurement and policy.
His approach emphasised “a brutally honest baseline” to enable effective measurement and prioritisation by service risk and most-used tools. He advocated for “small steps towards a shared goal” rather than an all-or-nothing approach; sustained funding; and a focus on workforce capability.
“It’s a big ship to turn… but there are practical steps to get there,” he said.
Shannon Kenney, director general of worker technology services, Shared Services Canada, also highlighted the importance of “bold leadership”, citing examples from municipal government such as willingness to partner with the private sector “because we don’t know what’s coming”, and to make bold decisions and move quickly. In one municipal example, a decision on a major software services migration was made within three months and implemented within a year.
This would not have happened without bold leadership, she said, adding: “I would love to see a little bit more of that risk-taking across federal government.”
Procurement power
Procurement of technology was highlighted as a challenge in the survey. During a panel session on procurement at the event, speakers highlighted specific challenges such as risk aversion, slow-moving processes, and the tension between innovation and standards.
They discussed how, historically, some promising ideas have failed in government simply because no department was formally asking for them or funding them. However, the current focus on digital and AI-driven transformation means organisations are creating faster pathways to fund and test ideas early.
Arianne Reza, deputy minister, Public Services and Procurement Canada, emphasised that procurement challenges directly affect service quality for Canadians and are not an “abstract” policy debate.
The panellists also discussed the government’s Buy Canadian policy, which aims to support digital sovereignty and boost the economy.
Christiana Cavazzoni, chief digital officer, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said this will “bring some diversity to our technology stack” but noted that “we still rely heavily on capabilities that are built at scale. We need to make sure that – as we think buying Canadian – we have the right problem set to be able to apply that approach.”
Reza stressed the importance of procurement officers strengthening their “challenge function” to ensure that stated requirements truly align with government priorities, such as opening opportunities to Canadian SMEs, without being too prescriptive about capabilities. The event highlighted that while digital transformation is not an IT project, technology plays an important role in government performance. Addressing issues such as legacy systems, fragmented architectures and outdated procurement models is key to improving the quality of public services and accelerating the pace of change.
This is the second chapter of Accelerating government transformation: Takeaways from AccelerateGOV 2025. You can read the report in full here, and register for AccelerateGOV 2026 here.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Richard Johnstone
Dieser Artikel ist neu veröffentlicht von / This article is republished from: Global Government Forum, 08.04.2026
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