The government of Quebec has released its 2024-2028 Government Cybersecurity and Digital Strategy, which a release says aims to propel the public administration toward action and increase public confidence in the province’s ability to successfully lead on digital transformation. Noteworthy among its goals are the launch of a digital identity and a digital wallet program within the next four years.

Drawing inspiration from best practices adopted by public administrations around the world, the strategy sees Quebec addressing the same technological deluge affecting everywhere from the EU to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. As motivating factors it names AI, an increase in cyberattacks, the prominence of cloud computing, the critical importance of data, and “the rapid growth in digital usage and appetite for digital services among the population.”

“This government cybersecurity and digital strategy 2024-2028 is in line with the progress made to date by public bodies while focusing on responsible, transparent and ethical use of data,” says the document, which espouses a core vision of “faster and more intuitive public services, powered by digital technology.”

Digital identity infrastructure to include wallet scheme

Axis 2 of the strategy is devoted to accelerating the digital transformation of public administration, and outlines objectives around digital identity and a common, interoperable digital delivery portal for government services. To achieve the latter, the government will have to “design and implement a unified service architecture between public bodies and work to ensure greater interoperability between their respective mission systems.”

For digital ID, “the Quebec government will create a digital wallet that will allow its holder to have their personal information and certain certificates at their fingertips in a secure digital environment that allows them to control access to them.”

A government authentication service is planned, to allow access to government services through a single login to secure government exchange platforms.

“In a context where daily life is becoming increasingly digital, whether through teleworking, telemedicine or even training, public services must transform to meet the expectations of the population,” says the document. “By 2028, the implementation of this strategy will make it possible to meet these expectations, in particular by significantly improving the citizen experience with regard to digital services offered by public administration.”

Other key pillars of a successful digital transformation are collaboration, mutual responsibility, and delivering on promises of security and privacy. “If quality services generate trust, secure services consolidate it. Thus, the digital transformation which will continue in the coming years will have to be carried out on the basis of strong information security and cybersecurity.”

Ethical, responsible adoption of AI, digital ID and other tools is a common theme, as is the need to establish “a data culture within public administration,” ensuring “all public bodies have the capabilities required to fully leverage the data they hold.” While regulators hash out policy details, in a digitized world, the onus of digital responsibility is networked, decentralized, federated – or, if you will, shared.

“Finally, even if there is now a Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs to ensure leadership of this transformation, it must be carried out by all public organizations. It is indeed collectively that the public administration must assume responsibility for transforming itself, but also to demonstrate to citizens the positive impact of a digital state.”

The full document is available in French here.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  digital wallets  |  government services  |  Quebec  |  single sign-on