Security Dilemmas for Canada's New Government

Abstract

The context of this article stems from the growing importance of digital technologies within public sector processes and applications tied to the realms of service and security. Both currents continue to influence the public sector and both rely increasingly on digital capacities for information sharing and processing. Yet there are also tensions between them as although both are bound by a more citizen-centric focus, the interpretation and application of this focus is different in each case. Service delivery is predicated on providing information and transactions to citizens in more efficient and integrated ways. Security underpins such service capacities, but it also denotes the usage and deployment of a digital infrastructure to both identify and respond to potential threats. Tensions between service and security have been and continue to be central to managerial and governance reforms associated with digital technologies internally and online connectivity externally.