OGGO – Narrative – June 5, 2023

Scenario - McKinsey & Company Contracts

Since before the pandemic, IRCC has faced an increase in applications as more and more people choose to come to Canada. With aging systems and processes, it was a challenge to keep up. The services we provide and the decisions we make impact people’s lives on a daily basis and we take this responsibility seriously. We also need to remain competitive in the global marketplace to meet our labor market needs and to support the Government of Canada’s broader efforts toward digital-first, user-centered programs and services.

For these reasons, IRCC needed to make significant and meaningful change across the Department. To that end, we launched two competitive processes:

• The first contract was to do a full review of how we work, and make recommendations for improvements to our digital services and overall user experience.
• The second contract was for a company to implement that plan, strategies and recommendations.

We amended the second contract in 2021 to help us respond to pandemic-driven pressures and sustain client services.

The McKinsey & Company contracts required specialized technical expertise on how to build a better, more user friendly digital platform for our clients. Our long-term goal is to simplify the application process for clients, keep them up-to-date on their application status, and deliver a decision on their application as quickly as possible.

These contracts did not ask for advice on immigration policies or our levels plan.

We have been developing digital tools and a more user friendly process over the past few years based on the original advice. However, this type of transformation takes time and our clients’ needs are diverse, complex, and ever changing. We need to test and adjust our digitals tools so that they work as intended to effectively and efficiently provide service to our clients.

The pandemic also forced us to pivot and move up our timelines on digitization, which had already begun with the advice from the contractor.

The advice taken was a first step toward transforming IRCC and part of broader efforts to strengthen our immigration system. We’ve digitized applications, hired and trained new employees, streamlined processes, and harnessed automation technologies to increase processing efficiency while protecting the safety and security of Canadians.

Even with the difficulties posed by the pandemic and multiple humanitarian crises, IRCC continued to meet its commitments across its many lines of business through this unprecedented period of uncertainty and change.

We know there is still more work to do, and we look forward to launching our new digital platform to better serve our clients in the near future.