Canada is ready for DPI: here’s how to make it work

3 July 2025

This week, the Canada Digital Service (CDS) laid out an inspiring vision for Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), signalling a powerful shift in how the Government of Canada can deliver services that are truly responsive, adaptable and impactful.

At Public Digital, we couldn’t be more excited: DPI is the bedrock of inclusive societies and Canada is poised to seize this moment to not only streamline citizen experiences but also bolster resilience and control across government.

“DPI is about reimagining public service delivery for a digital era – delivering services that are responsive, adaptable and impactful for service users. To realise DPI’s potential in practice, we need to think big, but start small and bold,” said Public Digital’s Head of Global Impact, Lauren Kahn.

Our work globally on DPI has included identifying what conditions are needed for success and shaping the institutions and teams to deliver them, from high-level frameworks to deeply embedded, country-level interventions. In Edo State, Nigeria, for example, we partnered with government to surface the core conditions for success – cross-government collaboration, an actionable Vision 2050 blueprint and strengthened public-sector digital capability – by co-designing a bespoke digital maturity assessment that engaged over 100 stakeholders across government, the wider digital ecosystem and end-users.

We agree with the CDS that this is a pivotal moment and a big opportunity for Canada to deliver better services to citizens in a way that also builds resilience and enables greater control and accountability over how those services are run and managed. The approach set out by CDS recognises that this is a cross-government challenge – and it needs investment to be successful.

We would also say that any investment should take a pragmatic, test and learn approach to its adoption and:

Ensure that any DPI investment will rapidly solve real problems for real people.

Use multidisciplinary teams and empower existing teams.

Embrace proven new ways of working to see what works, and to stay in control.

Build institutions and capability that can sustain DPI and govern it for ongoing public benefit.

As Canada Digital Service’s vision moves from strategy to delivery – there lies within a golden opportunity to create solutions that put people and users first. We’ve seen firsthand, in our own work with governments around the world, how test and learn and internet era ways of working can transform and enhance services for the greater good. Now is the time to shape Canada’s Digital Public Infrastructure to address today’s needs and create a more inclusive, resilient and digitally empowered tomorrow.

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