Publications and Reports

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Publications Series:

• Policy, Politics & Governance
• Changing Government

POLICY, POLITICS & GOVERNANCE SERIES (back to top)

Over the last decade, governments in OECD countries have been experimenting with new tools, ranging from Internet technologies to community partnerships. They could greatly improve government and democracy. But it is increasingly clear that these tools change how modern governments work, what they do and how they make decisions. Learning to use them well will require experimentation and careful analysis from the public service. It will require informed debate, strong leadership and good decision-making from politicians. This series, produced by the KTA Centre for Collaborative Government, is dedicated to exploring the issues from both points of view.

Vol 1: Information as a Public Resource: Leading Canadians into the Information Age
Modern governments contain huge amounts of data and information, which they currently store in a host of separate systems. Increasingly, e-government will penetrate these systems, liberating much of the information from its isolation and obscurity. This paper, written by Donald Lenihan, Director of the Centre for Collaborative Government, and Tony Valeri, MP for Stoney Creek, examines how governments could balance the demand that they liberate their information holdings with the demand that they provide reliable, authoritative information.

Vol 2: Horizontal Government: The Next Step
This paper, written by Donald Lenihan, Director of the Centre for Collaborative Government, and Tony Valeri, MP for Stoney Creek, sketches some of the emerging links between planning and reporting, policy development and coordination, and program delivery. It identifies a critical next step along the path to realizing the results agenda. And, it discusses some issues and challenges around our proposal to develop an alternative approach to funding.

Volumes 3 - 6 of this series focus specifically on the issue of government accountability and aim at promoting discussion of new ideas and issues around accountability for results. These publications were developed in consultation with politicians, public servants and journalists, and were sponsored by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Environment Canada, the Office of the Auditor General and Treasury Board Secretariat.

Vol 3: Results Reporting, Parliament and Public Debate: What's New in Accountability?
This paper is the first in a series of three papers on government accountability by Donald Lenihan, Director of the Centre for Collaborative Government, John Godfrey, M.P. for Don Valley West and John Williams, M.P. for St. Albert. It explains how accountability has been understood in the past and how results-based accountability differs from it. The paper goes on to assess some of the challenges and opportunities the new trend poses for government, democracy and public debate in Canada.

Vol 4: Accountability for Learning
Authored by Donald Lenihan, Director of the Centre for Collaborative Government, John Godfrey, M.P. for Don Valley West, Tony Valeri, M.P for Stoney Creek, and John Williams, M.P. for St. Albert, this paper explores the challenges to learning created by our current model of accountability, the importance of government being accountable for its learning, and some practical steps that will help the public policy community reach this goal.

Vol 5: What is Shared Accountability?
Authored by Donald Lenihan, Director of the Centre for Collaborative Government, John Godfrey, M.P. for Don Valley West, Tony Valeri, M.P for Stoney Creek, and John Williams, M.P. for St. Albert, this paper considers what a collaborative model of accountability might look like, how it might work, and what impact it might have on minsterial accountability.

Vol 6: From Ideas to Action: Towards Seamless Government
In the coming years, government will be investing millions of dollars to put in place the information technology infrastructure and integrated service delivery processes necessary to make citizen-centred, seamless government a reality. Yet to be successful, innovative approaches to procurement will be required. Authored by Maryantonett Flumian (Associate Deputy Minister, HRDC), Michelle d'Auray (Chief Information Officer, TBS), and Tony Valeri (MP for Stoney Creek), this paper opens discussion on options for and issues around creating new kinds of partnering relationships between government and the private sector to meet this challenge

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Vol 7: Finding an Aboriginal Digital Voice
A great deal has been written in recent years about the promise Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) hold for better, more efficient and more democratic government. This Paper tries to see if whether or not the general conception of e-government is relevant to, and fits the needs of, Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Vol 8: Democratic Renewal: Solutions in Search of a Problem
Many democratic renewal initiativeshave begun to take hold across the country. However, these efforts arefar from a co-ordinated development; in fact, there seem to be as many approaches to democratic reform and renewal as there are initiatives. But what they are all tapping into is a collective desire to re-examine how government works for citizens and how citizens connect to their governments. Taken together, they represent a national laboratory on civic engagement, one where the experiments could lead to a huge shift in how we define democracy for the future

Vol 9: Putting Pubilc Services in the Public Eye: Making the Political Case for Citizen-Centred Government
Getting and maintaining political attention for citizen-centred government is necessary but challenging. True collaboration to achieve the seamless service that citizens demand means action and leadership from public servants and politicians. This paper explores why service improvement needs more attention from political leaders, and examines a new agreement that is a hopeful new development for achieving citizen-centred service

CHANGING GOVERNANCE SERIES (back to top)

The KTA Centre for Collaborative Government's Changing Government publication series develops contemporary themes in public sector management and governance and will report on the outcomes of specific action-research projects.

VOLUME 1: Collaborative Government In The Post-Industrial Age: Five Discussion Pieces
As governments enter the Information Age, a key challenge will be to manage the transition to a new collaborative or networking model while strengthening democratic values and principles. These articles discuss the premise that countries such as Canada are changing from industrial to knowledge-based societies and focus on the central theme that collaboration is the appropriate democratic response.

VOLUME 2: Opening The E-Government File: Governing In The 21st Century
This paper considers what e-government is, how it may change government, what that may mean for Canadians, and what must be done to ensure that e-government is not only faster, smarter government but also more open, accountable, transparent, fair, and respectful of individual privacy. The paper was a primer for the Crossing Boundaries conference, held on March 28-30, 2001, which was the concluding stage in the Crossing Boundaries project. The project aims at creating a more informed discussion of e-government in Canada.

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VOLUME 3: Measuring Quality Of Life: The Use Of Societal Outcomes By Parliamentarians
The Library of Parliament asked the Centre for Collaborative Government to organize a series of three seminars that brought together parliamentarians, senior public servants and members of the policy community to explore the actual and potential political impact of societal indicators and to assist parliamentarians who wished to use these new tools of governance for the 21st Century more effectively. This paper is a thoughtful primer on the topic of societal outcomes and measures for use by parliamentarians, and a basis for further discussion and debate on the topic among politicians, public servants and the broader policy community.

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VOLUME 4: Leveraging Our Diversity: Canada as a Learning Society
This paper explores the idea that, in a knowledge-based society, diversity should be recognized as a resource. It proposes that diversity be viewed as high-grade social capital that has a significant contribution to make in developing the human capital needed for the 21st Century. The working assumption is that, properly leveraged, diversity can become a powerful contributor to learning and innovation - both crucial conditions for success in a knowledge-based economy.

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VOLUME 5: Post-Industrial Governance: Designing a Canadian Cultural Institution for the Global Village
The Department of Canadian Heritage has a mandate to foster and promote Canadian culture. The Digital Commons is only one part of a much larger Canadian Heritage initiative to make Canadian culture available online. What is a digital commons? Why is the Internet the central vehicle? How would such an institution work? What public purpose would it serve? This discussion paper addresses these questions and sets out the storyline for the Digital Commons.

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VOLUME 6: Realigning Governance: From E-Government to E-Democracy
This publication reflects our effort to produce a clear, readable account of e-government - a storyline - that synthesizes current thinking into a single, coherent framework and serves as a kind of guide for moving forward. This storyline should help e-government stakeholders understand the issues, challenges and opportunities, and provide a common point of reference - a vision - on which to base discussions, planning or debate over specific issues.

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VOLUME 7: E-Government: The Message to Politicians
This publication aims to work toward a clear vision of e-government that elected representatives at all levels of government can relate to, understand, and support. It is jointly authored by the Crossing Boundaries Political Advisory Committee (PAC), which includes eight elected representatives, along with the Chair of the CBIII project. Members come from all three levels of government, a variety of political parties and different regions of the country.

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VOLUME 8: E-Government: The Municipal Experience
This publication aims at deepening our understanding of e-government at the municipal level. This discussion paper is based on interviews with municipal leaders from across Canada and a discussion of key issues at the Crossing Boundaries Municipal Roundtable, held in Hamilton on June 2, 2002 at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Annual General Meeting.

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VOLUME 9: E-Government, Federalism and Democracy: The New Governance
This publication considers the long-term impact of the technology on pluralism, federalism and democracy in Canada. The paper suggests that a tension may be emerging between, on one hand, the increasing pluralism and diversity of civil society and, on the other, the drive to alignment and integration behind seamless government. It proposes a new vision of Canada for the 21st century and sketches a strategy to help balance the competing visions by realigning some basic governance practices.

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VOLUME 10: A Question of Standards: Accounting in the 21st Century
This publication is intended to report on and provoke stakeholder and public debate about the future of accounting standards setting in Canada, especially in regard to the possible loss of public trust following the accounting scandals in the United States. This report was developed with the advice and input of a discussion group organized by the Centre for Collaborative Government, with support from the Certified General Accountants of Canada.

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VOLUME 11: Finding our Digital Voice: Governing in the Information Age
This publication was the basis for the agenda of the Crossing Boundaries National Conference and contains significant recommendations on the future direction of e-governance in Canada.

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VOLUME 12: Governance in the Agreement on Internal Trade
This discussion paper examines the Agreement on Internal Trade from a governance perspective, and explores some new directions for enhancing the effectiveness of the Agreement at its 10th anniversary, especially on issues related to stakeholder involvement in the implementation of the Agreement and its dispute resolution process. This report was developed in consultation with a small working group made up of trade experts, public servants, politicians, and representatives of industry and civil society, and with the support of the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada.

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ABORIGINAL PRACTICE (back to top)

Publications
The Aboriginal Practice Group is often at the forefront of Aboriginal developments in Canada. Our collaborative work with the Crossing Boundaries Aboriginal Voice initiative has spawned several publications, the first of which is Politics, Policy & Governance: Finding an Aboriginal Digital Voice the second of which is Politics, Policy & Governance: Aboriginal Culture in a Digital Age

Social-Cultural Impacts of Aboriginal Cultural Industries:A Discussion Paper
This discussion paper serves as a preliminary examination of the social and cultural impacts of Aboriginal cultural industries on Aboriginal people, communities, and mainstream Canada.

Répercussions socioculturelles des industries culturelles autochtones: Document de travail
Le présent document de travail constitue un examen préliminaire des répercussions sociales et culturelles des industries culturelles autochtones sur les peuples et les collectivités autochtones ainsi que sur la population canadienne en général.

IASC Final Report (University of Winnipeg)
ICT in Aboriginal Communities: Increasing Aboriginal Social Capital(2008). A discussion paper on information and communication technology (ICT) as it relates to Aboriginal social capital.

Aboriginal Governance in 2015 (Queen’s University)
An analysis of the state of Aboriginal governance in Canada in 2015 under various globalization and Canadian federal state scenarios.