Canadian Government Executive Radio

Say “smart cities” and most people think technology—sensors, networks, data, the Internet of Things. We need to think people. Technology can help our cities deliver services more efficiently, future-proof assets, and boost transparency, making cities—and citizens—vibrant, healthy, and resilient. The approach to smart planning and design isn’t just to implement the latest tech trend, but to understand the needs of your community and identify the right solutions to achieve your goals. In this episode of the CGE, J. Richard Jones discusses the solutions with Nancy MacDonald, Vice President of Urban Places and Anton Germishuizen, Senior Vice President, Business Leader at Buildings.

In this episode of CGE Radio, we are pleased to welcome Mr. Michael Wernick, senior strategic advisor at MNP and adjunct Professor at Carleton University. Of course, Michael is no stranger to our listeners; he was Clerk of the Privy Council from 2016-2019 and, before that, held a number of leadership positions during his 38-year public service career. Michael talks to us about his recent book, Governing Canada: A Guide to the Tradecraft of Politics.  In its pages, Michael offers strategic advice to future prime ministers, ministers, and deputy ministers, based on his observations from a most unique vantage point as the Clerk. He expands on this work in his conversation with us, and talks to us about how the role of the Clerk, the budget process, and expectations of government have evolved over time. He also shares some thoughts about what he might write next. Please give it a listen!

In this episode of CGE Radio, J. Richard Jones and guest host deputy editor Lori Turnball chat with Dave McCann, Managing Partner and Canadian Leader, IBM Consulting, and Director, LGS Group about the Client Innovation Centre for Cloud Modernization. Organizations across public sector are making the journey to the cloud. Tune in as they discuss why cloud is so important and what Canadians have come to expect from the government when it comes to delivering digital services. CIOs are under pressure to meet all these expectations, but they often find that a step forward in one area results in a step backward in another. Public cloud services will provide several benefits including service performance, security, innovation, agility, and elasticity.  Learn more as CGE Radio discusses IBM’s Cloud Modernization Centre and why the urgency? As well as challenges within the public sector and how the IBM Cloud Modernization center can benefit both public sector as well as citizens.  About:IBM Consulting is IBM’s consult

Digital transformation is accelerating with key shifts such as the expanding Hybrid Workforce and the continued migration of applications and data to the cloud. As we make this transformation, Information Security teams have the opportunity to adopt a modern Zero Trust approach that fits these significant shifts. This means taking Zero Trust principles, making them actionable across users, applications and infrastructure, and effectively rebuilding security to keep pace with these tectonic shifts. Joining us today to talk more about Zero Trust is Paul Kaspian, Principal Product Marketing Manager at Palo Alto Networks. Paul specializes in Zero Trust and is knowledgeable about this modern security methodology, which can help organizations secure their digital transformation. Paul brings close to 20 years of experience in product management and product marketing where prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, he held strategic positions at Aruba Networks, IBM Security, Watchfire, and Checkpoint Software Technologies.

In this episode of CGE Radio, hear about digitizing government payments. Robert Hyde, CEO at Payment Source and Jennifer Tramontana, Executive Director at CPPO talk about financial inclusion and payment methods and trends of the prepaid industry in Canada. Robert Hyde has over 20 years of experience delivering technology-based solutions and digital strategy to a variety of firms. He is a skilled executive business leader who works collaboratively with clients, colleagues and partners to deliver progressive, multi-disciplinary solutions to business problems. Over his career, Robert has worked as a project manager, sales & marketing professional, strategy consultant and technologist. Jennifer Tramontana is the President and Founder of The Fletcher Group, a North American PR and content marketing agency that drives action and long-term impact for B2B, fintech and payments companies. She is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO), the collective voice o

In this episode of CGE Radio, we catch up with Sir Michael Barber to discuss his new book, the state of politics, and the dynamics of tackling the tough stuff and getting it done. Hear about the complexities of identifying priorities in a context in which everything can seem urgent, the importance of leadership in politics and government, and the daunting task of setting long-terms goals despite short-term electoral cycles. About Sir Michael Barber’s new book - Accomplishment Michael Barber has spent many years advising governments, businesses, and major sporting teams around the world on how to achieve ambitious goals on time. In this inspiring and practical guide, he applies the wisdom he has gained from dealing with large, complex organizations and elite athletes to help anyone tackle their most challenging goals. Drawing on the stories of historic visionaries and modern heroes - from Galileo to Rosa Parks, Harold Macmillan to Paula Radcliffe - Barber uses personal anecdotes and proven strategy to map the

In this episode, we will get into work integrated learning. We will talk about what works and what doesn’t and delve into Riipen, North America’s largest marketplace for work-integrated learning. We will see how Riipen is working with academic and employer partners to address underemployment and disruption and how it is hoping to impact the future of learning and work in Canada. Joining us today to talk about work-integrated learning is Dana Stephenson, Co-founder and CEO of Riipen. Dana is passionate about lifelong learning. He started his entrepreneurial journey when he made it his mission to eliminate underemployment through experiential learning.

In this episode of CGE Radio, host J. Richard Jones and CGE Deputy Editor Dr. Lori Turnbull explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected employee empowerment, productivity and engagement.  Joining them to talk about this important topic is KJ Burke, Principal Technology Strategist, Hybrid Cloud at CDW Canada.   KJ is an innovative and driven IT technology strategist with solid interpersonal and communication skills. KJ has spent over 20 years in the IT industry and has plenty of experience in planning and deploying technology to improve business processes and drive measurable value. His career has largely been spent in the mining and software development verticals, with expertise in networking, storage, virtualization, business process and data centre infrastructure. With a broad understanding of technology and business needs, KJ delivers value-focused IT solutions and processes that resolve complex business issues.   CDW Canada is a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government, educ

Leveraging the sponsored content article, "The Future of Data Centres: Four Key Pillars Data Centres Must Adopt by 2025," David Stephens, Director of Channels in the Secure Power Division at Schneider Electric Canada, discusses the increasing demand placed on data centres globally, which has been further heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the four key pillars data centre operators must follow in order to accommodate this demand, while ensuring operations remain sustainable and resilient for years to come.

In this episode of CGE Radio, we will look at how government organizations can use technology to automate their hiring process. Joining J. Richard Jones to discuss this topic is Sean Fahey, CEO of VidCruiter. Sean is an award-winning business leader, serial entrepreneur, and strategic recruitment advisor who is eager to share his expertise and help people solve hiring problems. VidCruiter is a company that helps HR teams worldwide modernize their recruiting efforts by providing video recruitment and online hiring solutions. The company’s software can be implemented and used by government to recruit and hire talent in an innovative, cost-effective and user-friendly way, providing benefits to both the recruiters and the candidates. Hear an overview of the work they’ve done with Canadian and international governments, the benefits of an automated solution in helping candidates and hiring agencies, how VidCruiter work to accommodate government needs when it comes to hiring and recruitment, being compliant with go

Full data-driven government implementation has been an ongoing goal for many years. But human obstacles, the unwillingness to collaborate, cybersecurity issues, and trust are hampering the full roll out of this. Hear from Dr. Julia Glidden, CVP, Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft, Dr. Lori Turnbull, Deputy Editor, CGE and Executive Publisher of CGE, J. Richard Jones as they discuss this important topic of data-driven government initiatives, COVID-19 vaccine passport, the future of government, citizen driven-data and collaborative tools.

In this episode, J. Richard Jones talks with two experts from FireEye about cloud. FireEye is the intelligence-led security company. Working as a seamless, scalable extension of customer security operations, FireEye offers a single platform that blends innovative security technologies, nation-state grade threat intelligence, and world-renowned Mandiant® consulting. With this approach, FireEye eliminates the complexity and burden of cyber security for organizations struggling to prepare for, prevent and respond to cyberattacks...

The year 2020 will be remembered as a time when the world as we knew came to a halt. But it will also be remembered as the year when telework became the norm and the digital enterprise became even more important. Despite major technology investments, many government agencies still struggle to meet the surge of new demands and citizen expectations.  Joining us on the show today to talk more about this is Robert (Bob) Osborn. Bob is the Chief Technology Officer, Global Governments for ServiceNow.

In this episode, we will hear about an organization - Benchmark Corp - and how they can help government accelerate their digital transformation. Benchmark has been on the leading edge of digital transformation for almost 20 years and has experienced tremendous growth, expanding across Canada in all major cities. Benchmark has been transforming to a software solution provider with a bias towards Open-Source Technology with a strong specialization in DevSecOps and Zero Trust security. Infrastructure is still critical to their success and legacy.

Supply chain attacks are not common, and the SolarWinds Supply-Chain Attack is one of the most potentially damaging attacks we’ve seen in recent times. SolarWinds, as you may know is a software company that primarily deals in systems management tools used by IT professionals. The most widely deployed SolarWinds product is Orion, which is a Network Management System (NMS). NMS is a prime target for attackers for a number of reasons and today on CGE Radio, Coleman Mehta, Senior Director, U.S. Policy from Palo Alto Networks will give an overview of this...

We have been hearing about smart cities for a little while now. Smart cities use data collected through sensors and other technologies to help make better decisions and improve the quality of life for city dwellers. But how can we shape smarter cities and make them more livable? In this episode of CGE Radio, we will hear from Keith D’Sa. Keith is the country manager for Axis Communications in Canada.

As cloud becomes foundational, this year will see an increased focus in edge computing. In 2020, innovations in next-generation communications such as 5G, cloud-native technologies, and edge computing architectures have come together. This is enabling organizations to quickly create and deploy distributed services, as well as using AI to quickly generate insight locally. On the show today, we will hear from Brian Chidester. Brian is the Head of Worldwide Industry Strategy for Public Sector at OpenText. 

Immigration isn’t something that is top of mind in the day to day of most Canadians, but it’s a fundamental pillar to our social and economic fabric. Canada was built through immigration, dating back well before confederation in 1867, and responsible for the multi-cultural society of today. In this episode of CGE Radio, hear from Zaina Sovani, Assistant Deputy Minister of Transformation, Digital Solutions Sector and Chief Information Officer at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). She is responsible for leading the department through a major transformational change program focused on improving client experience and service delivery.  Over the past 20 years, Zaina has held many executive roles both in the public service and private sector, gaining the reputation of a builder and transformational leader. Coming to Canada as a refugee herself, Zaina is well attuned to the importance of, and challenges with immigration. Hear more about the important role of immigration in our economy and society,

Applications are important to governments in delivering services to citizens. In the show today, we will touch on the journey of apps modernization for government, what the public expects, where the government is on their path to modernizing apps and the technology available to support this transition. Hear from KT Burke, Manager, Hybrid Architecture for CDW Canada.   CDW Canada is a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government, education and healthcare. CDW Canada helps customers achieve their goals by delivering integrated technology solutions and services that help customers navigate an increasingly complex IT market and maximize the return on their technology investment. Areas of focus include software, networking, unified communications, data centre and mobility solutions. CDW Canada is on the Channel Daily News Top 100 Solutions Provider list in Canada, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vernon Hills, Illinois-based CDW Corporation, a Fortune 500 company. For more information, visi

In this episode of the Last Word podcast, CGE Radio host J. Richard Jones talks with the Deputy Editor of CGE about key themes within public sector, vaccines for COVID-19 and distribution, the exhaustion of working remotely while dealing with family obligations, children, and school. What are we doing well during this pandemic and where we need to improve, the speculation of an upcoming federal election, and a new digital transformation event coming in May that will help push the need for technological advancement to meet the needs during this new norm.