2015 Ministerial Mandate Letters - open data

Canada (federal level)

2015 Ministerial Mandate Letters

For the Canadian federal Mandate Letters, the starting paragraphs are (on a quick scan) all the same (with adjustments to address each Minister), including

We have also committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government.  It is time to shine more light on government to ensure it remains focused on the people it serves.  Government and its information should be open by default.

Two Mandate Letters mention open data (on a quick scan).

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development:

• Improve the quality of publicly available data in Canada.  This will require working with Statistics Canada, the President of the Treasury Board and other departments and agencies to develop an Open Data initiative that would consider big data and make more of the data paid for by Canadians available to the public.

The President of the Treasury Board:

• Take a leadership role to review policies to improve the use of evidence and data in program innovation and evaluation, more open data, and a more modern approach to comptrollership.
• Accelerate and expand open data initiatives and make government data available digitally, so that Canadians can easily access and use it.

This is somewhat different from the mandate to the Minister of Science, which includes "Create a Chief Science Officer mandated to ensure that government science is fully available to the public".