Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO): Comprehensive Expenditure Review

Opening statement

Scott Davis
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister
Shared Services Canada

Ottawa, Ontario
April 23, 2026

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to discuss how Shared Services Canada will achieve savings through the Comprehensive Expenditure Review.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the unceded and traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation.

At its core, Shared Services Canada (SSC) provides the Government of Canada’s shared IT foundations, such as networking, data centres, cloud services, digital tools and cyber security, so departments can deliver programs and services reliably and securely.
Since 2016, SSC’s funding has remained relatively flat while demand, reliability and complexity have increased. The Department has absorbed inflationary pressures and rising demand by leveraging efficiencies and economies of scale.
Although SSC’s total appropriation in 2026–27 is 25% higher than in 2016–17, this growth is driven by time limited and targeted funding. In fact, once budgetary adjusted items and the previous Refocusing Government Spending exercise is accounted for, SSC’s base funding is lower than it was in 2016–17.

When combined with savings already delivered through the Refocused Government Spending initiative, the Comprehensive Expenditure Review reductions will significantly reduce SSC’s available funding compared with earlier years.
To make these changes, our approach was not to ask “how do we get to the number?” Instead, we asked “what should we not be doing anymore?”
The review is not only a savings exercise for SSC, it is an opportunity to accelerate enterprise-level efficiencies through enterprise-wide solutions, and by leveraging the Department’s collective purchasing power for the government as a whole.

Under the Comprehensive Expenditure Review, SSC will achieve 15% savings over three years—an ongoing decrease of $318.5 million a year.
We will do this by standardizing what we use, buying and managing technology as an enterprise, and improving how we deliver services.
SSC is standardizing platforms and realigning enterprise software offerings to reflect current needs, eliminating non-essential fixed telephone lines in government buildings and deploy cost-effective softphones to all workers.
The Department continues to review, and consolidate contracts to reduce duplication, improve pricing and better align spending with enterprise needs, as while strengthening in-house capacity to reduce reliance on external consultants and contractors for ongoing operations.
Efforts to simplify the government’s cloud footprint by consolidating over 287 cloud environments into SSC’s enterprise cloud are ongoing, and we continue to consolidate by reducing the remaining 190 legacy data centres.
SSC has put in place strong governance of the review to provide oversight, track progress and ensure accountability for results.

On professional services, SSC required additional resources during the pandemic, when we moved fast to support remote work. We are now back to pre-pandemic levels and stabilizing.
Under the Refocusing Government Spending initiative, SSC exceeded our savings target with an $81 million reduction in professional services since 2022-23, and we plan to continue those reductions where feasible.

In conclusion, the savings measures we are looking to implement will ensure sound financial management in a tightening fiscal environment by eliminating duplication, addressing lower-value activities, and improving efficiency.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I welcome your questions.

2026-04-23