Briefing package for a Committee of the Whole on Supplementary Estimates (A) 2020-21 – Minister of Digital Government

Contact Centres (Call Centres) - June 17, 2020

Issue / Question

Critical call centres receiving phone calls from citizens and employees across the country are being modernized with more flexible infrastructure and Internet-based services through an enterprise solution known as the Hosted Contact Centre Services Project. The migration from aging infrastructures to a cloud-based solution provides greater flexibility and scalability for departments and, as a result, better service to Canadians.

During COVID-19, Shared Services Canada has been working with partners in the industry to ensure that the Canadian telecommunications network and the underlying infrastructure can support the unprecedented level of calls received across the Government of Canada contact centres.

Suggested Response

• The Government of Canada is committed to building a modern, secure, and reliable information technology infrastructure for the digital delivery of programs and services to Canadians
• Shared Services Canada is making strides in its goal to make the Government of Canada more responsive to Canadians’ demands for services they can access anytime, anywhere, and from any device, on a trusted and secure platform
• The Hosted Contact Centre Services project will allow citizens to access services in a number of ways, including voice, web, text, chat, videoconferencing, and Text Telephony (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf). This project is shortening call wait times and improving the caller experience.
• Shared Services Canada has increased flexibility and capacity of the Contact Centre infrastructure to meet Canada Revenue Agency's and Employment and Social Development Canada's number of requests for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and Employment Insurance

Background

• The Hosted Contact Center Service project is focused on modernizing Canada Revenue Agency’s and Employment and Social Development Canada’s high complexity and high criticality contact centres to the cloud-based Hosted Contact Centre Service solution
• In 2019, The Office of the Auditor General of Canada released a performance audit on call centres. The recommendations related to Shared Services Canada include:
  • That Shared Services Canada ensure that the Hosted Contact Centre Services project include a complete inventory of call centres and business needs of departments and agencies; and that SSC consult with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to ensure that the initiative is aligned with the Secretariat’s strategy for government-wide service.
  • That Shared Services Canada provide the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts with a report outlining what progress has been made with regard to completing its modernization of the remaining contact centres, including consideration of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s government‑wide approach to client services and the business needs of lead departments and agencies by October 2019
• In response to those recommendations, Shared Services Canada embarked on a contact centre transformation exercise with a goal of replacing and consolidating aging and obsolete contact centres with a state of the art, highly secure and dependable service, scaled to meet the demands of Canadians and employees. Shared Services Canada’s inventory review identified 221 operational contact centres that were supported by the Department.

Increased Flexibility and Capacity of the Contact Centre Infrastructure - COVID-19

• Shared Services Canada has been working with partners in industry on a daily basis, most notably the top three telecommunications providers, to ensure that the Canadian telecommunications network and the underlying infrastructure can support the unprecedented level of calls that were received across the Government of Canada contact centres, examples include:
  • Increasing infrastructure capacity to meet Canada Revenue Agency's and Employment and Social Development Canada's number of requests for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and Employment Insurance
  • Delivering more than 7,000 cellular devices to contact centre agents, including headsets to enable agents to work from home, while ensuring that the cellular infrastructure was capable of supporting the influx of cellular usage
  • Responding immediately to increase capacity on Global Affairs Canada's emergency contact centre, enabling it to handle the large amount of calls and allow the public servants in the contact centre to work closely with airlines and missions to get fellow Canadians home (for example; Morocco, Spain, Peru), and
  • Increasing capacity across countless other contact centres, including Service Canada, Canada Border Services Agency, Public Health Agency, Health Canada, and many others

Network Security and Privacy - June 17, 2020

Issue

Data security and the protection of personal information is paramount in Canada’s increasingly digitally-enabled government. The Government of Canada is committed to protecting its data, information and information technology infrastructure so Canadians can rely on a secure, stable and resilient digital government.

Suggested Response

• Shared Services Canada is committed to protecting the privacy of individuals, including their personal information and supporting Government departments to protect their data and information on Government of Canada infrastructure
• The Department expanded networks and boosted secure remote access to support over 279 thousand simultaneous connections, so public servants can continue to deliver critical services to Canadians
• Shared Services Canada, in conjunction with Treasury Board Secretariat, the Office of the Chief Information Officer and the Canada Centre for Cyber Security, has conducted risk assessments for all new capabilities and implemented appropriate safeguards to protect Government of Canada assets

Background

Expanding Secure Remote Access Capability

• Over the past several weeks, Shared Services Canada has been expanding Secure Remote Access capabilities to the Government of Canada by implementing and upgrading infrastructure with capacity over 279,000 public servants to securely connect to their departmental network. This allows the government to ensure network security by encrypting traffic from the user home network to the office and allows Shared Services Canada to securely authenticate and identify the user, while also providing continued visibility to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
• Canada Revenue Agency upgrades include Secure Remote Access capacity increases from 20,000 to 40,000 (projected to be 60,000 by the weekend of May 2) as well as major improvements to CRA testing capability
• Employment and Social Development Canada upgrades include Secure Remote Access capacity increases from 17,500 to 53,000
• Shared Services Canada provided 10 times more Secure Remote Access capacity to Correctional Service Canada and tripled the capacity for the Department of National Defence

Key Secure Remote Access Facts

• Government of Canada population: 417,092
• Original network capacity, pre-COVID-19: 137,193
• Current capacity as of April 27: 274,284
• Target Capacity: 284,937

Next Generation HR and Pay Initiative - June 17, 2020

Issue

Update on the Next Generation HR and Pay Initiative.

Key Facts

• In June 2019, following an innovative and agile procurement process, the government announced it had selected Ceridian, SAP, and Workday as the qualified vendors for the Next Generation solution
• In September, the Government announced that it will invest $117 million to co-design and deliver pilot projects for the NextGen HR and Pay system
• In March, after months of evaluation, and testing, the Government announced that SAP had been selected to work with our team on a pilot for a new Human Resources and Pay solution
• NextGen has begun engaging SAP on a series of discussions to assess organizational capacity and readiness to work on NextGen under the current COVID-19 circumstances

Response

• We continue to work towards a long-term and sustainable HR and pay solution to meet the diverse needs of federal employees across Canada
• In September 2019, the government committed $117 million to co-design and deliver pilot projects to test solutions against the real complexity of federal government HR and pay needs
• In March 2020, the Government of Canada announced SAP as the vendor selected to begin work on a pilot for a new Human Resources and Pay solution
• This important work has continued even under the current COVID-19 circumstances

Background

Budget 2018 announced the Government’s intention to move away from Phoenix and begin development of a pay system that will be better aligned with the complexity of the federal government’s human resources and pay structure.

TBS received $16 million over two years, beginning in 2018-19, to explore replacement options for a next generation human resources and pay solution. 

In June, the Government announced it had selected Ceridian, SAP, and Workday as the vendors deemed qualified to deliver a next generation human resources and pay solution for the Government of Canada. 

In September, the Government announced that it will invest $117 million to co-design and deliver pilot projects for the NextGen HR and Pay system.

In March 2020, after months of evaluation, and testing, it was announced that SAP had been selected to work with our team on a pilot for a new Human Resources and Pay solution.

NextGen has begun engaging SAP on a series of discussions to assess organizational capacity and readiness to work on NextGen under the current COVID-19 circumstances.

Initial focus of work with SAP will include establishing governance and oversight, project management tools and protocols and development of a detailed plan to pilot the solution in a core department.

Effective April 1st, leadership for NextGen was transitioned from Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat to Shared Services Canada. Because of Shared Services Canada’s expertise and experience in the delivery of enterprise solutions, the Department is well-poised to deliver this important service.

The Chief Human Resources Officer at Treasury Board Secretariat remains the Business Owner and a key collaborator of the NextGen initiative.

The Government continues to work with stakeholders, such as bargaining agents, employees, and HR and pay practitioners, and will continue to engage in an open and transparent manner, so that the new solution can address the needs of a modern public service and its employees as soon as possible.

Ongoing stabilization efforts of the Phoenix Pay System remains a top priority for the government and is being pursued by Public Services and Procurement Canada.

Office 365 and Digital Communications - June 17, 2020

Issue / Question

Shared Services Canada is initiating a series of projects to digitally enable the Government of Canada workplace.

Response

• Shared Services Canada is expanding the digital communications tools and services available to Government of Canada employees
• Email and other types of digital communications tools enable Government of Canada employees to collaborate effectively and better serve Canadians in today’s online environment
• Microsoft Office 365 is a suite of tools that will enable new levels of efficiency, innovation and collaboration via the cloud. Nationwide, public servants will be able to work in more connected ways using integrated email, instant messaging, enterprise-wide social networks, videoconferencing, web applications, digital collaboration tools, and more.
• Thanks to Microsoft 365 applications like Teams, public servants nationwide are enabled to work and interact in more connected ways. This includes instant messaging, enterprise-wide social networks, videoconferencing, digital collaboration tools, and more.
• A temporary Government of Canada COVID Collaboration System (using a standalone Microsoft Office 365 environment) supports any federal employees’ unclassified work and collaboration, when departments and agencies request access. This service was launched on March 15, 2020 to help resolve pressures on the Government of Canada network. As of May 25, there were over 93,970 users from 37 departments on the Government of Canada COVID Collaboration System.

Background

• Shared Services Canada is preparing the infrastructure required to support the implementation of Microsoft Office 365 in the Cloud for 43 Government of Canada departments and agencies. Shared Services Canada aligns with the Government of Canada’s digital vision of enabling delivery of services anytime, anywhere, and from any government device and supports the SSC 3.0 Approach of:
  • Solidifying the IT foundation by increasing network reliability and strengthening security
  • Modernizing collaboration tools to enable, engage and empower employees, and
  • Adopting Cloud and modern data centers to improve reliability and reduce risk
• The new Digital Communications and Collaboration project is working closely with other Government of Canada departments such as the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Public Services and Procurement Canada, and the Communications Security Establishment. Together, they will ensure that the Government of Canada operates as one to the benefit of all Canadians.
• This new Digital Communications and Collaboration service will provide:
  • The ability to work securely (up to Protected B) from anywhere, with agility, flexibility of service delivery and increased security
  • Access to a core set of tools to provide a better user experience
  • Access to communication tools beyond email to improve employee mobility, and
  • Accessibility from the onset with software features that support inclusivity
• Under the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, Shared Services Canada will be able to provide all federal departments with Microsoft Office 365. Public servants will be able to use software that is more inclusive from the start due to built-in accessibility features. The Microsoft Enterprise Agreement will cover getting:
  • digital communication and collaboration tools
  • business and network applications
  • ongoing support, and
  • maintenance for licenced services
• Microsoft Office 365 will enable greater efficiency and collaboration with the latest office productivity technologies. For example:
  • Inspectors and scientists working in the field using a tablet and a cell phone will be able to access the same suite of products to work on shared documents with colleagues back at the office
  • Members of a nation-wide working group will be able to collaborate on a project and keep a running log of conversations regardless of the difference in time zones, and
  • A public servant who uses assistive technology to communicate with team members will be able to take advantage of built-in accessibility functions to get captioning of a web-casted meeting in another city

COVID-19 Emergency Communications Response

• Given the urgency of the current COVID-19 global pandemic response, the Government of Canada has required that its workforce work remotely. As such they require the ability to easily collaborate among departments and agencies as well as with provincial, territorial and other entities to coordinate actions and services for Canadians. This must be carried out whilst ensuring that information is protected against unauthorized access and use.
• To help the Government of Canada continue its work amid the COVID crisis, the Government of Canada has adopted Microsoft Office 365 to immediately support digital communications and collaboration. There are three types of workspaces that are provided within the Government of Canada:
  
  
  • Efforts are underway to ensure each department and agency has access to their own standalone Microsoft Office 365 cloud environment to support work and collaboration up to and including Protected B using Government of Canada-issued and managed endpoint devices. This work is being accelerated to support the demands of remote workers requiring modern communication and collaboration tools.
  • A temporary Government of Canada COVID Collaboration System (using a standalone Microsoft Office 365 environment) supports any federal employees’ unclassified work and collaboration, when departments and agencies request access. This service was launched on March 15, 2020 to help resolve pressures on the Government of Canada network. As of May 25, there are over 93,970 users from 37 departments on the Government of Canada COVID Collaboration System.
  • A permanent Government of Canada Emergency Communication System, using a standalone Microsoft Office 365 environment with dedicated tablets for use by senior officials and essential employees for work and collaboration up to and including Protected B to support the Government of Canada’s business continuity activities

Supplementary Estimates (A) 2020-21 - June 17, 2020

Issue

Supplementary Estimates (A) 2020-21 for Shared Services Canada (SSC) was tabled in Parliament on June 2, 2020 and is the first Supplementary Estimate for this fiscal year.

Supplementary Estimates present information on additional spending requirements which were either not sufficiently developed in time for inclusion in the Main Estimates or, have subsequently been adjusted to account for developments in particular programs and services.

Response

• Shared Services Canada will invest additional funding to provide modern, reliable and secure information technology infrastructure in support of government priorities and digital delivery of programs and services to Canadians

Background

• With the approval of Supplementary Estimates (A), SSC’s reference levels for 2020–21 will increase by $5.5 million from $2,055.2 million to $2,060.7 million
• The $5.5 million increase in the Supplementary Estimates (A) is attributable to the following:
  • A total of $3.1 million to enhance the integrity of Canada’s borders and asylum system as part of a Budget 2019 measure. SSC’s role is to enhance interoperability and improve asylum information technology systems, provide the necessary network and system hardware upgrades under the direction of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and to provide supporting core IT services.
  • A total of $2.4 million (including $0.4 million for Employee Benefit Plan) to make federal government workplaces more accessible as part of the Budget 2019 measure for the Accessibility, Accommodations and Adaptive Computer Technology (AAACT) Program. This funding will bolster the capacity of the AAACT Program to identify, remove and prevent technological barriers facing public servants with disabilities in federal government workplaces.
  • A total of $0.05 million for the cost of providing core information technology services to support new full time equivalents (FTE) in the government by providing a standard suite of services at an approved rate of $700 per FTE
• Vote Netted Revenues (VNR) Authority – Total Nil Net Effect:
  • As part of the Supplementary Estimates (A), SSC received approval to include the Capital Vote-Netted Revenue Authority thereby allowing the department to use funds collected to be applied against related capital expenditures

Telework / Remote Access - June 17, 2020

Issue / Question

Shared Services Canada plays a vital role in supporting the federal departments and agencies that are providing critical government services to Canadians.

Amid the current COVID-19 Pandemic, Shared Services Canada is working with government organizations to ensure that IT infrastructure and telecommunications needs across the Government of Canada continue to be met. This includes the enhancement of key existing capabilities to support the increased volume of workers outside of the corporate networks.

Suggested Response

• Shared Services Canada has enhanced and expanded network, security and infrastructure capacity, increased teleconferencing capacity, and enabled videoconferencing for senior officials and emergency response staff, to enable the Government of Canada to work securely and remotely anytime, anywhere
• With the increase in remote work, Shared Services Canada has leveraged Cloud technology to configure collaboration tools enabling over 100,000 employees of public departments and agencies to hold virtual meetings
  • For example, Shared Services Canada is helping Employment and Social Development Canada to implement secure cloud-to-ground connectivity requirements in support of COVID-19 priorities to respond to needs that include the eSIN application and Canada Emergency Response Benefit. As a result, Employment and Social Development Canada will be able to reduce manual processing by allowing for automation.
• Shared Services Canada provisioned thousands of devices (laptops, tablets, phones), so departments can address emergency requirements and support of essential Government of Canada services
• The Department increased the capacity of the Government’s teleconferencing services which have seen usage grow from 1.6 million minutes a day to more than 5 million minutes and increased the Internet infrastructure capacity by 50%
• Shared Services Canada enabled Wi-Fi calling—which will allow Government of Canada employees to make and receive calls where there is poor cellular service—and enrolled 183,000 Government of Canada mobile accounts on this service

Background

Enhancing Network Infrastructure Capacity

• Over the past twelve weeks, Shared Services Canada has been working tirelessly to enhance the network infrastructure capacity in order to enable the Government of Canada to work during the COVID-19 crisis. The team members continue to travel to Government of Canada work sites regularly to perform essential network infrastructure deployment activities. Activities include:
  • Enabling Government of Canada users to work remotely and supporting the new COVID-19 programs launched by the Government for Canadians. The work increased the Government of Canada Internet infrastructure capacity by 50% as well as implementing more than 30 major Internet and Secure Remote Access Connections for Government of Canada departments. Departmental bandwidth upgrades ranged from increases of 20% to 300%, depending on the department, including for Canada Revenue Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada to support their COVID-19 responses
  • Completing the establishment of a Regional Network Hub in Toronto to provide access to Cloud and Internet Services for the Government of Canada. Currently working on onboarding Employment and Social Development Canada as the first client to enable the deployment of the Government of Canada's emergency relief programs in the cloud, and
  • In the process of establishing a second Regional Network hub in Vancouver to provide distributed and enhanced access to Cloud and Internet Services for Government of Canada users and services in Western Canada

Expanding Secure Remote Access Capability

• Over the past several weeks, Shared Services Canada has been expanding Secure Remote Access capabilities to the Government of Canada by implementing and upgrading infrastructure with capacity for over 279,000 public servants to securely connect to their departmental networks. This allows the government to ensure network security by encrypting traffic from the user home network to the office and allows Shared Services Canada to securely authenticate and identify the user, while also providing continued visibility to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
• Canada Revenue Agency upgrades include Secure Remote Access capacity increases from 20,000 to 59,500 as well as major improvements to CRA's testing capability
• Employment and Social Development Canada upgrades include Secure Remote Access capacity increases from 17,500 to 53,000 (maximum connections possible)
• Shared Services Canada provided 10 times more Secure Remote Access capacity to Correctional Service Canada and quadrupled the capacity for the Department of National Defence

Increasing Teleconferencing Capacity

• Teleconferencing capacity has been increased from a daily average of 1.6 million minutes a day to in excess of 5 million minutes a day

Microsoft Office 365 / Digital Communications and Collaboration Project

• To help the Government of Canada continue its work during the COVID-19 crisis, the Government of Canada has adopted Microsoft Office 365 to immediately support digital communications and collaboration. There are three types of workspaces that are provided within the Government of Canada:
  • Efforts are underway to ensure each department and agency has access to their own standalone Microsoft Office 365 cloud environment to support work and collaboration up to and including Protected B using Government of Canada-issued and managed endpoint devices. This work is being accelerated to support the demands of remote workers requiring modern communication and collaboration tools.
  • A temporary Government of Canada COVID Collaboration System (using a standalone Microsoft Office 365 environment) supports any federal employee's unclassified work and collaboration when departments and agencies request access. This service was launched on March 15, 2020, to help resolve pressures on the Government of Canada network. There are currently approximately 100,000 users from 37 departments on the Government of Canada COVID Collaboration System.
  • A permanent Government of Canada Emergency Communication System (using a standalone Microsoft Office 365 environment with dedicated tablets) for senior officials and essential employees supporting the Government of Canada's business continuity activities for work and collaboration up to and including Protected B

Accelerating Deployment of Mobile Virtual Private Network

• Shared Services Canada is accelerating the deployment of a new service that enables public servants to securely access their department’s internal resources on their work-issued mobile (iPhones/iPads, Android phones and tablets) devices thereby increasing the ability of the Public Service to work remotely. This service is tailored to meet each department or agency’s requirements, and supports web-based applications or applications designed specifically for mobile devices. 

Updating IT Infrastructure to Improve Service Delivery to Canadians - June 17, 2020

Issue / Question

The Government’s systems and infrastructure are aging out faster than they are being replaced. At the same time, demand for IT infrastructure services has never been greater and is only expected to rise.

Suggested Response

• In Budget 2018, the Government invested $2 billion in Shared Services Canada (SSC) over five years, showing unprecedented support of SSC’s central role in delivering the Government of Canada’s digital vision by building a modern, reliable and secure digital platform
• Availability and reliability of Government of Canada Digital Services provided to Canadian citizens are dependent not only on the overall health of applications but also on the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure hosting the applications and data.  While supporting application health, SSC is helping departments who are transitioning business applications and data from aging Infrastructure Technology services onto modern, reliable and secure Enterprise Services such as Enterprise Data Centres or public or Cloud services.
• This creates opportunities to leverage cloud technologies while further reducing number of Government owned and operated aging date centres, improve networks and security, adopt innovative Government of Canada wide collaborative tools, and modernize and improve application health
• Canadians and public servants can depend on the Government of Canada as we work towards faster, more capable, and more secure digital services

Background

• Shared Services Canada provides the Government of Canada's digital backbone to enable successful Digital Services to Canadians. Shared Services Canada’s role is to establish reliable, modern, and secure Enterprise Services (that is, Cloud Services and Enterprise Data Centre Services) that host the critical applications supporting Government of Canada Digital Services.
• Shared Services Canada has received over $1,108M to replace and modernize IT infrastructure and their associated services that support the delivery of Government of Canada Digital Services to Canadians (that is; Budget 2016: $384M for IT Refresh; Budget 2018: $358M for IT refresh and $366M for Workload Migration). In addition, SSC plans to access the remaining funding for the IT Refresh Program which is approximately $343M over three years starting in fiscal year 2021-22 to 2023-24 as well as $114M ongoing starting in fiscal year 2024-25, which is in addition to the $358M stated above.
• Shared Services Canada has established support and maintenance contracts for major data centres and is updating at-risk infrastructure where possible. To help these efforts, Shared Services Canada set up a Workload Migration program to move applications and their data to modern Enterprise Services. This will result in reduced risk of infrastructure failures impacting digital services to Canadians. Shared Services Canada has also been working to consolidate 720 of its original data centres, and move workloads to the Cloud or to one of four modern, secure and reliable Enterprise Data Centres. To date, 283 data centers have been closed. Shared Services Canada is currently working on the Workload Migration Renewal Strategy to ensure the continuation of the program and to move workloads to modern, secure and reliable data centres or to the cloud.
• The Workload Migration program is leveraging the private industry for their expertise and capacity to meet demand. These top industry leaders are experienced in planning and executing migrations from legacy data centres to Cloud services and Modern Enterprise Data Centres. Through the regular Government of Canada procurement process, Shared Services Canada qualified the following vendors:
  • IBM Canada Ltd.
  • EMC Corporation of Canada (Dell EMC)
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise Canada Co.
  • Hitachi Vantara Inc.
  • CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Inc.
• The Workload Migration program continues to work with Shared Services Canada, other Government departments and Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat partners to support and enable Digital Government. This includes work to identify, plan and expand new services to ensure clients have the advice and technologies to transform and improve digital services for Canadians.