Looking forward with a dash of backward

Michelle d’Auray was assigned to quarterback the federal government’s e-government program – or at least a significant portion of it – a year ago, in September, 2000. It’s been a busy year for the public policy veteran who replaced Linda Lizotte-Macpherson as Chief Information Officer at Treasury Board Secretariat. She’s the point person for the government’s ambitious Government On-Line program, which aims to have all government services available on line by 2004. In that capacity, she’s coordinating the activities of hundreds of IT managers – and the thousands of people who works for them – at a crucial point in the evolution of the federal government. Robert Parkins of Lac Carling Governments’ Review talked to Michelle recently on her assessment of her rookie year as CIO. What follows are excerpts from their wide-ranging conversation.