For governments, being able to confidently verify someone’s identity digitally unlocks trusted digital services that were too risky to deliver before, and has extensive potential applications in the private sector. This makes services easier for Ontarians to access, whether that means skipping the ServiceOntario line or avoiding long journeys from more remote communities across Ontario. We’ve seen processes that once took 40 days due to government delays reduced to just 40 seconds by eliminating the need for manual verification. The goal is to essentially reduce the risk of fraud and save taxpayer dollars.
Canadians lose nearly $2B per year from identity and document fraud, which involves creating, altering, or using fake identity documents (and real documents) to deceive others. As AI is capable of making cleaner, more convincing deepfakes, the problem is getting worse. Digital credentials help organizations build trust by binding a verified person to a transaction, and the technology can also apply to other government documents, such as tax forms, to create a higher degree of trust that nothing has changed. This improves public safety, helps reduce fraud in areas like mortgage and auto lending, and speeds up turnaround times for individuals.
Similar to how the world trusts the Canadian Dollar because the country backs it with its reputation, digital identity allows a government to back its people by proving their affiliation to Ontario. This can build confidence in a variety of situations when interacting with new customers and help reduce wait times for business processes, including mortgage applications, document authentication, and the purchase of age-restricted goods.
Passports work because the world created a passport standard that every country follows. Those standards are still being developed for Digital Identity, but the world has mostly agreed on two standards, W3C (OIDVC), and mDL, which are not the standard provinces developed toward in the past. The identities produced need to be seamlessly verifiable through these standards in order to succeed for the wide range of users within Canada, and the wide variety of our international allies, peers, and collaborators.
While we’d like to see more Canadian wallets gain a foothold in the market, Apple and Google are also capable of supporting mDLs and W3C Verifiable Credentials. For this program to be widely adopted, it needs to be wallet-agnostic, giving Canadians the freedom to choose the wallet that works best for them rather than having that decision dictated by the government. We build trust by meeting people where they are and giving them the flexibility to choose.
It’s one thing to bring digital credentials to market, but their real value comes from how people use them in everyday life and how they make life easier. Starting with the Ontario Photo Card could open the door to practical applications, such as proving age when purchasing age-restricted products, skipping trips to Service Ontario, or sharing information with the government online. The potential goes further when you consider future applications in banking and healthcare. Imagine living in a Northern Ontario community and being able to access services without having to travel hours to see a doctor or visit a pharmacy. The sooner Ontarians can start using their credentials in ways that save time and reduce friction, the more value they’ll see in the technology.
Vaultie is excited about the prospect of this government bringing digital ID to Ontario and is ready to help get this infrastructure up and running so we can see just how much value it will bring to Ontarians. Our hope is that we can build a system where any government-issued document, identity-related or otherwise, can be authenticated as genuine and verified as having come from the government. We also hope to use digital identity to help build trust, facilitate better care, and make it easier to do business within our communities.
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