Connecting with Canadians: Assessing the Use of Government On-Line

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By C. Underhill and C. Ladds [About the authors]

Note to readers

This study uses data from the 2005 Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) conducted by Statistics Canada in November 2005 as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS excluded residents of the territories, inmates of institutions, persons living on Indian reserves, and full-time members of the Canadian Armed Forces. More than 30,000 Canadians aged 18 years and over were asked about their Internet use, including electronic shopping, during the previous 12 months. The CIUS includes a set of core information and communications technology (ICT) indicators as well as specific questions that begin to assess the impact of Internet use on Canadian society, reflecting specific policy interests. For example, respondents were asked questions on the extent and purpose for which they use the Internet to connect with their governments at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.

For information about businesses connecting with governments, see the article Canadian firms connect with government on-line (Catalogue no. 88-003-XIE, vol. 8, no. 3).

An Internet user is someone who used the Internet from any location in the 12 months preceding the survey for personal non-business reasons. A home-user is someone who reported using the Internet from home, for the same reasons.

See the Canadian Internet Use Survey for more information about survey questions, definitions and methods.

For the purposes of this study, government online refers to the general types of activities related to obtaining information and communicating with Canadian governments (see Chart 2). In reality, government online includes 130 of the most commonly used informational and transactional services among Canadians. See GOL for more information about these services.

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