Why municipalities choose Civic Digital Identity

Single account spanning all municipal services — taxes, utilities, permits, recreation, waste, animals, and more — from day one.

Separate credentials per department. Residents manage 4–7 different logins with no cross-service visibility.

SSO capable but requires custom integration per municipal system. Identity and service data remain separate.

Personalized resident dashboard consolidating properties, taxes, utilities, permits, cases, payments, and notifications in one interface.

Each department portal shows only its own data. No consolidated view. Residents navigate across multiple URLs.

Identity management portal only. No municipal service dashboard. Requires custom development for citizen-facing experience.

Three-pathway verification: AI-powered photo ID, knowledge-based municipal data challenges, and in-person service counter — accommodating all residents.

Manual in-person verification only. No online identity proofing. Residents must visit city hall during business hours.

Generic KYC verification designed for banking — not calibrated for municipal contexts. No knowledge-based municipal questions.

Built-in SSO with SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect, and OAuth 2.0. Pre-built connectors for all Civic Suite modules. Single session across all services.

No federation capability. Each portal authenticates independently. Session state is not shared.

Strong SSO capabilities but no pre-built municipal connectors. Integration is a custom development project per application.

Built-in CASL compliance engine with transactional/commercial classification, express/implied consent tracking, 2-year expiry management, and consent audit trail.

Manual CASL tracking with spreadsheets. Consent records are inconsistent across departments. Audit trail is incomplete.

Email consent features designed for CRM marketing — not CASL-aware. No transactional/commercial classification. No implied consent expiry tracking.

Configurable form builder with automatic profile pre-fill, save-and-resume, digital signatures, document upload, and internal/external form generation from a single definition.

PDF forms requiring manual data entry. No pre-fill. No save-and-resume. Residents re-enter address and contact info on every form.

No form builder included. Requires third-party form tool integration. Pre-fill requires custom development against the identity API.

Multi-service payment cart allowing residents to pay taxes, utilities, permits, licences, and recreation fees in a single transaction with automatic revenue allocation.

Separate payment systems per department. Residents make 3–5 separate payment transactions for the same household.

No payment capability. Requires separate payment gateway integration. No multi-service cart or revenue allocation.

Full WCAG 2.1 AA compliance with AODA-specific accommodations: format preferences, font scaling, language preference, and screen reader optimization throughout all resident interfaces.

Inconsistent accessibility across portals. Some meet AODA requirements; many do not. No centralized accommodation preferences.

Login and admin UI are accessible. Municipal service interfaces are outside scope. AODA-specific accommodations are not supported.

100% Canadian-hosted infrastructure with Ontario primary and Quebec DR data centres. Zero cross-border data transfer. SOC 2 Type II certified.

Varies by vendor. Some host in the US. Data residency is not guaranteed across all department systems.

Canadian regions available but default configurations may route data through US. Data residency requires explicit configuration and monitoring.

Full source code access with perpetual licence. Municipality can inspect, modify, and extend any component. No vendor lock-in.

Proprietary closed-source per vendor. Multiple vendor contracts with different licensing terms.

Closed-source SaaS. No source code access. Configuration only within vendor-defined parameters.

Built-in satisfaction tracking (NPS, CSAT), post-interaction surveys, and closed-loop notifications — residents learn when their feedback drives improvements.

No integrated feedback system. Separate survey tools per department. No closed-loop mechanism.

No feedback capability included. Requires third-party survey integration.

Household linking with consent-based shared views. Authorized representative designation with scoped access. Family service consolidation.

No household concept. Each family member manages accounts independently. Power of attorney handled on paper.

User grouping available but not designed for municipal household concepts. No authorized representative or power of attorney support.

Built-in MFIPPA compliance with collection authority display (s.28(2)), purpose limitation, data minimization, immutable audit trail, and right-of-access via My Civic Dashboard.

MFIPPA compliance is manual and inconsistent. Each system maintains separate audit logs. Access requests require cross-system aggregation.

GDPR and SOC compliant but no MFIPPA-specific features. Ontario privacy legislation requirements are not natively supported.

Per-resident flat fee with unlimited staff users, all modules included. No per-transaction or per-form surcharges. Predictable annual cost.

Multiple vendor contracts with different pricing models. Total cost is difficult to calculate. Hidden fees for integrations and customizations.

Per-user per-month pricing that scales with adoption. Costs increase unpredictably as more residents onboard. Additional charges for premium features.