# Welcome

In 2019, the Government of Canada (GC) revised its IT policy framework, effectively marrying the concepts of service and digital under its new Policy on Service & Digital. This renewed policy states that fundamental to digital transformation is the need to emphasize the citizen experience and provide digital services that Canadians can trust and consume with relative ease.

Former Treasury Board President, Scott Brison, said in 2019: “we cannot continue to be a Blockbuster Government serving a Netflix Citizenry.” This statement rings truer today than at anytime in the past. In the latest edition of the UN E-Government Survey, Canada now ranks 47th for digital nations; in 2020 we ranked 28th.

The COVID pandemic exposed just how fragile some of the GC’s services are - from passports to immigration and pilot medicals. These services, when placed under stress, had trouble withstanding surging demands. Leaders lacked key operational insights to support timely decision making, quickly identify root causes, and respond with accuracy. The GC’s underlying digital infrastructure continues to be at risk, with some aging IT systems as old as 50 years.

Process Mining (PM) can help address digital service delivery challenges in several innovative ways. This document introduces process mining, its applicability in Government, and a framework for how to get started with PM in your Government department. This document and associated framework is meant to be evergreen and welcomes input from academia, process mining practitioners, local and international governments. Our aim is to empower others with the tools and knowledge to adopt process mining by sharing our lessons learned. As we continue to mine processes, we'll be sure to update this space with new findings.

It is our sincere hope that by illuminating our Process Mining work through the Public Service Data Challenge, that we can inspire and grow the community of process miners within the federal public service (and in Canada), while continuing to push against the status quo, and help Canada meet its digital ambitions. The Government of Canada's processes have traditionally been very opaque. It's time to illuminate them, optimize them, and live up to our commitments of open government through increased transparency and bold new approaches.

The status quo is no longer an option.