The Functional Government Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Government doesn’t have to suck.

Most Canadians have no idea how the rest of the world interacts with government. So we decided to find out. Join us as we learn why so many government services are slow, outdated, or just plain broken—and then travel the world talking to countries have made them awesome.

Let’s make government functional again

In a modern society, citizens use digital technology to complete everyday tasks like paying taxes, renewing passports, and claiming benefits. This is called Digital Government. In 2010, Canada was building these services pretty well—in fact, the U.N. ranked us third in the world. But in fifteen years, we’ve fallen to number 47.

The Canadian Federal government alone has over 270 different digital services. You need 60 different usernames and passwords to access them all. There are more than 130 ways to claim benefits and grants, but none of them are connected. We sign into government services with banks, and send information to foreign-owned companies to file our taxes.

Canada’s digital government is way behind. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Around the world, governments are letting citizens do things online quickly, easily, and securely. Join host Alistair Croll as he learns why building modern digital services is hard, how other countries have solved these problems, and what it will take to make Canada functional again.