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Ottawa, August 9, 2001
2001-070

Minister Launches Department of Finance Canada Web Site "Simplifier"

With the launch by the Department of Finance Canada of "The Simplifier," a federal government Internet first, the Department’s Web site information becomes simpler to understand for all Canadians, Finance Minister Paul Martin announced today.

"A clear challenge facing government," said Mr. Martin, "is to use new information and communications technologies to give Canadians a government that is more accountable and transparent. I believe that making the jargon governments use stand up and explain itself to all Canadians is a small but significant step in supporting the right of citizens to know and understand what their government is doing."

Here is how the innovative feature launched today works: The Simplifier automatically creates links between specialized vocabulary and acronyms that may be used almost anywhere on the site, and the Finance Canada glossary explanation of the meaning of the term. These links to the bilingual glossary are, for most recent browser versions, distinctively coloured and tagged. Visitors are therefore reminded that we have available, in all the hypertext (HTML) documents, a single-click tool that makes understanding specialized terms easier and simpler and puts the explanations in context.

The Simplifier was created because much of the Finance Web site’s content is complex and technical, yet the information is important and relevant to all Canadians, whether specialists or not (e.g. tax change information, education credits).

Finance communicators find they can only go so far in simplifying language, given the specialized issues involved. Some jargon is inevitable if the information is to be exact. But thanks to The Simplifier, the jargon is automatically explained. This is done in a way that is obvious in every hypertext document on the Web site – and the vast majority of pages on the site are in hypertext.

Web visitors are invited to suggest additional glossary terms by sending an e-mail message to: gloss@fin.gc.ca. All suggestions will be considered for the annual revision of the glossary and some may be added even sooner.

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