About the IA&A Working Group

Previously at Lac Carling

At Lac Carling VII and PSCIOC and PSSDC meetings held in Saint Sauveur, Québec in May 2003 the governments of Ontario and Canada presented an overview of an identity authentication and authorization framework for service delivery that is generic and transferable. This “Chain of Trust” framework was intended to provide the underpinnings for further discussions on the components of IA&A systems, the goal being the development of a standard that all jurisdictions could use to simplify the work to build cross-jurisdictional IA&A systems and to provide a consistent, coherent client experience.

Subsequently a Working Group was established to develop common cross-jurisdictional language to describe the components and related levels of trust for Identity Authentication and Authorization systems and to test the utility of this common language in at least one business sector function at the federal, provincial and municipal level. It was also agreed that the Working Group should recommend an on-going governance structure for the standard.

The working group was constructed to bring the r ight balance of expertise in business, I&IT, privacy and security expertise across federal, provincial, municipal interests.

PSCIOC/PSSDC gave final approval to the Terms of Reference and the Draft Work plan on September 30th, 2003.

Objectives of the Working Group

As per the IAA Working Group's terms of reference, the ultimate objective is to have Identity Authentication and Authorization standards that facilitate seamless, cross-jurisdictional electronic service delivery and leverage each jurisdiction’s IT infrastructure. Standards will be maintained by a permanent governance body.

As an interim step towards the long term goals, the Working Group is undertaking to :

• Develop guidelines containing a common set of definitions and vocabulary for identity authentication and authorization processes for inter-jurisdiction application, including levels of trust
• Develop recommendations with respect to next steps, including an on-going governance structure and the role of Third Parties

Horizontal Linkages

The IAA Working Group is also extending the work being done to be include consultation on Legal, Security and Privacy with the following horizontal linkages with other PSCIOC/PSSDC sub-committees:

• National CIO Council Subcommittee for Information Protection
• National CIO Council Privacy Subcommittee
• PSCIOC/PSSDC XML National Subcommittee

Contacts

As the IAA Working Group has moved forward on achieving its mandate, it has drawn on the resources of its membership, including:

• Government of Ontario, Management Board Secretariat (Chair)
• Government of Canada Treasury Board Secretariat
• Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Management Services
• Government of Alberta, Office of the Chief Information Officer
• Government of Saskatchewan Information Technology Office
• Government of Manitoba Information Communication Technology
• City of Winnipeg Corporate Information Technology
• City of Toronto, Information and Technology Planning
• Québec L'inforoute gouvernementale et aux ressources informationnelles
• Government of Nova Scotia Service Nova Scotia
• Government of Newfoundland & Labrador, Executive Council
• Integrated Service Delivery for Business (Ontario)
• Government Authentication Project (British Columbia)

Please direct comments to:

Jeff Evans
Chair, Cross Jurisdictional Working Group on Identity Authentication and Authorization
I&IT Strategy, Policy and Planning Branch
Office of the Corporate Chief Strategist
Management Board Secretariat
Government of Ontario
416-327-4107