Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne has announced the launch of a standardization roadmap to address how data is structured and secured.
The roadmap is called the Canadian Data Governance Standardization Roadmap. The government says the launch is an important milestone for Canada’s Digital Charter.
When former Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains launched the Digital Charter launched in 2019, the Standards Council of Canada convened the Canadian Data Governance Standardization Collaborative to accelerate the deployment of governance standards.
The collaborative has since developed the standardization roadmap to create a level playing field in the digital economy. The roadmap includes 35 recommendations to ensure that Canada’s digital infrastructure is founded on trust and ethics.
The roadmap aims to provide a framework to ensure that the conversations involving data among governments, Indigenous governments and organizations, industry, civil society, standardization bodies and Canadian citizens are trustworthy and transparent.
“Standardization is an increasingly important tool for ensuring Canadians can access the best and safest products, systems and technological solutions in our increasingly digital world,” Champagne said in a statement.
“The roadmap launched today will help position Canada as a standard setter and leader internationally when it comes to data governance.”
The first recommendation looks at developing national best practices for accountability frameworks related to privacy and security of personal data. Another recommendation looks at developing criteria for evaluating data governance professionals.
Further, the roadmap recommends standardizing the practice of linking data while addressing privacy implications. It notes that data linkage creates an ethical dilemma and goes beyond the original purpose of the data collection process.
“With regard to next steps, it is imperative that Canada move as soon as possible, building on what has already been done and ensuring engagement of a broad spectrum of Canadian citizens and businesses. The longer Canadians must wait for digital ID and open banking, the further Canada falls behind with the risk of never being able to catch up,” the document outlines.
It also notes that Canada needs to take a proactive approach to reap security benefits but to also prevent the country from falling behind others or being vulnerable to breaches.
Image credit: @fp_champagne
