Croll said Boots’s speech resonated because his proposed fixes are practical. They will affect people at the coal face and show deep internal understanding of how things work. He’s got lots of credibility with the technology folks, but Croll said he’s also warm, friendly, empathetic and seen as a voice of reason who selflessly helps others.
“Even his revolution sounded like a guided meditation tape” in spots, Croll said. And he didn’t sell out and go the private sector. “He left because he couldn’t do what he knew was needed, but stayed in a career of public service.”
Boots recently took a job with the Yukon government.
He is a founding member of the Canadian Digital Society, the swat team of techies that the government just moved from Treasury Board to Shared Services Canada, the agency that provides IT services across departments. (The jury is out on that move. Some worry that the team will die at Shared Services.)
He has worked for nonprofits and co-founded Ottawa Civic Tech. He is big on open source and open data in government. He went on leave in early 2022 to work with Carleton University professor Amanda Clarke to unpack the black hole of federal contracting and figure out how to reform IT procurement. On his own time, he blogs about technology, has tweeted about it and has interviewed public servants who inspired him for his Public Service Heroes series.
Sounds like an everyday hero himself. But it seems he was too much of a maverick for some federal public-service bosses who prefer their employees to stay in the shadows.
Boots had been booked at FWD50 last year to discuss the findings of his Carleton research, much of which related directly to ArriveCAN, said Croll. Back in his public-service job, he had to bow out. Some conference-goers responded by wearing buttons saying “I know why Sean Boots isn’t here.”
So how does the cost of ArriveCAN compare with nine of the largest IT projects underway in government? Here’s a chart Boots presented:
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