E-government and public-private partnerships in Canada: when failure is no longer an option

The emergence of e-government requires new organisational architectures, including the usage of public-private partnerships. The issue of relationships between private vendors and public providers has grown in importance, and it will continue to do so. Our focus in this article is to examine the current prospects for such relationships in Canada. We find that the service transformation dimension of e-government is driving a greater amount of relational activity between sectors from which we can derive some emerging 'good practices'. The emphasis on more collaborative governance arrangements also characterises the public sector environment internally, both within and between government organisations.