Program directory · Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
Digital Service
- Program code
- BNP05 (ISC)
- Core responsibility
- Companies, Investment and Growth
- In Departmental Plans
- 2018-19 – 2025-26 · Appeared and later dropped
What it does
The Digital Service Program recognizes the growing need for digital innovation in the public sector, in support of a Government priority, “Improving Delivery and Quality of Government Services”. It also recognizes the ongoing need for improving and simplifying access to relevant government information and services for Canadian businesses, and in particular entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Program aims to make ISED a leader in digital service to business, by charting a course for client-centric digital services, fostering leading-edge digital service provision to clients, modelling open government, and providing foundational digital services that support firms so they can start, compete, connect and grow.
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Service | This program | 2018-19 – 2027-28 | $69.8M |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | Indicators added: The percentage of client interaction points available online for ISED’s externally-facing services, as outlined in the Departmental Service Inventory | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Indicators dropped: The percentage of client interaction points available online for priority services | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | ≥ 85% | 2023 | — Data will be available after the annual TBS Service Inventory exercise ~ December 2023. | No result reported |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 85% | 2024 | 81% 14 During 23-24, ISED worked to address reporting barriers related to online interaction points. There were misconceptions about what constitutes an “enabled,” “not enabled,” or “not applicable” interaction point; reporters often used these terms interchangeably, leading to skewed data. To tackle these challenges, DTSS created a resource page to directly address service owners’ questions. Additio… | Not met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 85% | 2025 | 78.6% This number was calculated from the service inventory submission from 2023-2024 seeing as it is the most recently approved service data. Since then, we have added new internal enterprise services and expect to be hitting the 85% target at the end of the next inventory cycle (end of 2025). | Not met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | ≥ 100% | 2021 | 80% Some priority services cannot be completed end-to-end online due to legislative barriers and/or IT limitations; however, service areas are actively working to remove these barriers. Of note: The data used for measuring results is drawn from MAF 2020-2021 and is from the previous fiscal year (2019-2020). TBS has also indicated that the priority service designation will not be used moving forward. | Not met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 90% | 2022 | 76% The data used for measuring results is drawn from the Management Accountability Framework (MAF) 2021-22 and is from the previous fiscal year. For the 2021-22 reporting cycle ISED reported a total of 71 services in the annual Service Inventory, 69 of which were included in the MAF scoring. This year MAF scores were inclusive of all 69 services rather than focusing exclusively on priority services… | Not met |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
No indicators in the 2026-27 plan.
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | $7.7M | $10M |
| 2019-20 | $10.1M | $9.8M |
| 2020-21 | $9.9M | $9.3M |
| 2021-22 | $11.4M | $11.8M |
| 2022-23 | $10.9M | $9.8M |
| 2023-24 | $8M | $9.6M |
| 2024-25 | $11.6M | $9.4M |
| 2025-26 | $11.7M | — |
| 2026-27 | $11.7M* | — |
| 2027-28 | $11.7M* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 61 | 52 |
| 2019-20 | 52 | 68 |
| 2020-21 | 73 | 60 |
| 2021-22 | 73 | 64 |
| 2022-23 | 60 | 56 |
| 2023-24 | 51 | 59 |
| 2024-25 | 60 | 67 |
| 2025-26 | 51 | — |
| 2026-27 | 52* | — |
| 2027-28 | 52* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 plan | $7,665,571 | $6,849,878 | $6,460,804 | |||||||
| 2019-20 plan | $10,146,346 | $9,926,245 | $9,926,234 | |||||||
| 2020-21 plan | $9,904,772 | $9,841,135 | $9,976,196 | |||||||
| 2021-22 plan | $11,392,809 | $10,893,505 | $10,893,505 | |||||||
| 2022-23 plan | $10,934,656 | $10,934,656 | $10,931,849 | |||||||
| 2023-24 plan | $7,983,505 | $10,997,051 | $11,023,718 | |||||||
| 2024-25 plan | $11,557,259 | $11,595,554 | $11,607,099 | |||||||
| 2025-26 plan | $11,718,856 | $11,730,553 | $11,730,553 | |||||||
| Actual | $10,029,814 | $9,791,576 | $9,259,130 | $11,826,305 | $9,845,152 | $9,637,346 | $9,382,801 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
