E-Governance & government on-line in Canada: Partnerships, people & prospects

The objective of this paper is to examine the capacity of the Canadian fede ral government to effectively harness information technology (IT) as an ena bling force in its efforts to meet the present and emerging challenges of a digital age. The main thesis of this paper is that this necessary transfor mation in public sector governance and accountability is likely to be block ed by an administrative culture that may be ill suited for a digital world. In terms of how governments respond, our two sets of explanatory factors w ill be determinant. First, partnerships, and the emergence of new collabora tive dialogues within government, between governments, and across sectors a re a critical dimension. The second, and quite related variable lies in the necessary leadership of people -new skill sets, and new leaders will be re quired to both empower knowledge workers and defend experimental action. Ye t, it is not only the skills composition of workers altering in a digital e ra, but rather the broader transformations of both everyday and organizatio nal life that are also at play. In this sense, digital government must repo sition itself to become an engaged and constructive partner in shaping the new governance patterns that will otherwise render it rudderless, Governmen t must produce a new "culture" in order to harness the enormous potential o f digital government. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.