Code for Canada aims to combine tech experts with government

If you’ve ever been stuck in a long line in a government office waiting to fill out paperwork, a new project in Canada may create sweet relief in the future

It’s an ambitious plan to modernize systems in an area notorious for slow improvements, but officials hope the Code for Canada will lead to more efficiency for all Canadians.

“We want digital services in Canada that are offered by your governments, whether that’s municipal, provincial, federal, to be as easy to use and as accessible and as wonderfully designed as all the technological products you use in your daily life as a consumer,” said communications director Luke Simcoe.

Essentially, just imagine all the technological advances in the last few years, and translate that to digital services offered by all branches of government.

“We help connect digital professionals from the tech sector to governments and government departments who are looking for ways to improve their digital offerings and use technologies to better serve residents,” explained Simcoe. “And by doing that, we bring some of these new methods that have been developed in recent years, in terms of how you build technology, how you design technology, and we hope to bring those into government so that they can take advantage of it.”

There will be growing pains, as government workers are not the same as keyboard-tapping coders, but Simcoe believes both will benefit from the relationship.

“They both learn a little bit more about how each other works, and sort of how their strengths can co-exist,” said Simcoe.

The project has already begun, with a plan underway to bring tech experts into the Ontario government to start working on their systems and discussions are happening to do the same in Edmonton.

Other versions of the project are also working in countries such as Germany and the United States.

At the end of the day, the hope is that every person will see some positives.

“They’re done efficiently so that people have time to do go about all the things they’d rather be doing instead of renewing their driver’s license online or applying for a small business permit, or whatever it is that they have to interface with the government for,” added Simcoe. “If that can be done more efficiently, easily and quickly, then you have more time to go about all the things that you’d prefer to be doing.

You can take part as well, by joining as a fellow or trying to bring them into your community by going to http://codefor.ca.