This paper describes the Government of Canada's standards and recent activities to create and manage metadata and controlled vocabularies. The Government of Canada (GoC) has been working actively for several years to enhance access to its published information through the use of metadata. In recognition of the value of controlled vocabularies in managing electronic information, the GoC has adopted standards for metadata and controlled vocabularies. Various initiatives have been proceeding to create and adopt controlled vocabularies for use with Dublin Core and other metadata schemas. Work is proceeding simultaneously on several fronts: establishing governance and developing tools to create and adapt controlled vocabularies, extensibility and interoperability frameworks, development of metadata registries and repositories, and creation and mapping of taxonomies. Canadian government departments and agencies have engaged in these metadata initiatives to support the fundamental priority of transforming services. The challenge is to allow the initiatives to mature and develop while ensuring they are co-ordinated.