How public sector CIOs are rebuilding trust in digital government

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In Canada, you can renew your licence, access your health records, and pay your taxes online. 

On paper, the country’s public sector has never been more connected. 

But are we really making these often-tedious processes easier? 

Only 35% of Canadians are satisfied with their provincial government’s online experience, according to Adobe’s 2025 Digital Government Index. The report found that while provinces scored highest in accessibility, readability, and language translation, they continue to lag in mobile speed, personalization, and overall customer experience (CX), areas most closely tied to public satisfaction.

These findings land in a year when more public services than ever, from health records to tax filings to benefits, depend on digital systems.

It’s a gap that can’t be closed with better code alone. 

Canada’s Digital Ambition 2024-25 notes that 77% of Canadians have now connected with government online, and 60% have done so in the past year. 

Despite that growth, the report warns that “satisfaction with government services has dropped,” revealing a widening gap between expectation and experience.

Public sector leaders are confronting a harder truth. Technology can make services faster, but it doesn’t automatically make them trustworthy. 

Canadians want digital experiences that feel personal, transparent, and dependable, and when they don’t, confidence in institutions erodes.

“Citizens want access to their information,” says Scott McKenna, CIO for Nova Scotia Health and CIO Association of Canada’s 2025 CanadianCIO Award winner for Public Sector. “They want to know the government is in a digital world, it’s secure, it’s private, and it’s trust.”

As technology becomes the front door of public services, digital design determines whether citizens feel seen and supported by their government.

When, as one Nortal survey found, the average citizen is spending an average of 28 hours engaging in government services in a year, the demand for reliability ticks up a few notches. 

Citizens as users, not endpoints

Governments have long measured progress through efficiency, setting sights on faster systems, lower costs, and shorter queues. 

Efficiency, however, doesn’t automatically create trust. 

When a public-facing service is confusing or inaccessible, it doesn’t matter how modern the backend looks. The result is frustration, not confidence.

Canada’s Digital Ambition outlines a national goal that “services are user-centric, trusted and accessible.” 

Despite significant investment and broader online availability, satisfaction has fallen. The issue is experience.

McKenna says that in health, “digital isn’t about technology, it’s about data and people,” a mindset that shaped Nova Scotia’s transformation from the start. 

When he returned to his home province after three decades in the federal public service, including as CIO at Health Canada, the system he found looked like many others across Canada. It was fragmented, siloed, and struggling to connect information.

“Our health systems have a variety of old technologies done in silo,” he said. “Any technology can talk. I think what we did in Nova Scotia, we tackled it from a people and a data standpoint, and that drives success.”

That approach led to theclear goal of creating a single, secure health record built on international standards. 

Nova Scotia became the first jurisdiction in Canada to adopt the international Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Release 4 data standard, a move McKenna calls “a game-changer” that set the province apart.

Leadership through connection

CIOs are uniquely positioned to close the trust gap. Their role sits at the intersection of policy, infrastructure, and public experience. To succeed, they must translate complex technology priorities into outcomes that resonate with citizens.

One of the four digital government goals Code for Canada, a non-profit dedicated to creating better digital public services, signals for 2025 is “filling the digital talent gap,” highlighting that governments must compete for skills if they are to rebuild citizen trust.

McKenna argues that success comes from vision matched with execution, noting that it can be rare to get both. It comes down to having the right mix of vision and strategy, followed by delivery, he explained.

The Code for Canada report also notes that “across Canada, public servants are struggling to create digital experiences that go beyond basic compliance to achieve true accessibility.” 

This reinforces a growing reality that CIOs must embed transparency, inclusion, and ethics into every design choice. 

Their credibility depends as much on empathy and openness as it does on technical performance.

The future of digital public service

Government efficiency and standardization still matter, but the true measure of progress is confidence.

The best examples are proving that design is policy. 

In Nova Scotia, Your Health NS gives residents secure access to medical records and verified health information through a single digital entry point. 

“We want to provide Nova Scotians a front door to the health system, not to the acute care hospital system, to the comprehensive health system,” says McKenna.

Its success, with more than 800,000 downloads and strong adoption among providers, shows what happens when usability becomes the metric that matters.

For other provinces, the model demonstrates that a citizen-centric approach strengthens confidence in government itself.

Canada’s digital transformation is now about rebuilding belief in the public systems that hold the country together.

When citizens trust digital platforms, they use them more, improving data quality and service delivery. When they don’t, confidence erodes, and so does participation.

Final shots

• Only 35% of Canadians are satisfied with their online government experience, according to Adobe’s 2025 Digital Government Index.
• Provinces perform well on accessibility but lag in mobile speed, personalization, and customer experience, all factors that shape trust.
• While 77% of Canadians have connected with the government online and 60% in the past year, satisfaction continues to fall.
• Canada’s Digital Ambition 2024–25 sets the goal for services that are “user-centric, trusted and accessible.”
• Code for Canada’s 2025 report points to three priorities for rebuilding credibility: accessibility, ethical AI, and digital talent.
• Success for today’s CIOs depends on whether people trust the systems they create.

Digital Journal is the national media partner for the CIO Association of Canada.