Shared Services Canada History and Legislative Responsibilities

In Budget 2010, a comprehensive review of government administrative functions and costs was mandated to identify opportunities for additional savings, to improve service delivery and to return to a balanced budget.

Budget 2011 continued to examine government-wide solutions to standardize, consolidate and re-engineer the way the government does business. Efficiencies that enabled shared services arrangements and the transfer of functions from departments and agencies were identified as key considerations.

During this review, examples were examined from other jurisdictions and private-sector organizations with respect to their own information technology (IT) platforms. The decision to create Shared Services Canada (SSC) is an outcome of this review.

On August 4, 2011, the creation of SSC was announced. IT infrastructure services and related funding and personnel were transferred from Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to SSC by Order-in-Council (OIC) (approximately 1,500 positions).

The new department was tasked with a mandate to provide 43 government departments with IT infrastructure services – specifically for email, data centres and networks.

Services related to IT infrastructure that are not part of this mandate are:

• accredited to process or store Top Secret information; or
• operated by the Canada Border Services Agency, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Department of National Defence or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police:
  • for the operation of ships, aircraft or vehicles;
  • if it is capable of being transported; or
  • to support operations to counter threats to national defence, national security and public safety.

Through a second set of OICs published on November 15, 2011, 5,000 public service positions were transferred to SSC from 42 other departments and agencies.

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On April 1, 2012, SSC became an independently functioning department in terms of its governance and financial responsibilities. Accountability for the people and financial resources associated with the delivery of email, data centres and network services shifted from partner organizations to SSC.

The Shared Services Canada Act received Royal Assent on June 29, 2012. In support of this, a third OIC transferred over 50 employees from PWGSC’s Acquisitions Branch to SSC. The coming into effect of the Shared Services Canada Act established SSC’s mandate in law and also provides that SSC:

• may provide its services to other departments and to Crown corporations on an optional basis;
• may provide services to organizations that are neither departments or Crown corporations, subject to the Governor in Council’s approval;
• may charge fees to recover the costs for its services, for example, where the costs of the service are not included in an appropriation;
• may, for the purpose of providing services under the Act, procure goods and services for departments and Crown corporations to which it provides services; and
• will not, for the purposes of the Access to Information Act, be considered to be in control of records or personal information held by institutions to which SSC provides services.

On September 7, 2012, SSC's public Internet site was launched. The site is a central hub where Canadians can find information on the work of the department, including priorities, goals, achievements and progress to date.

On November 22, 2012, a roundtable was launched to bring together government and representatives of the information and communications technology sector to help shape the Government of Canada’s IT transformation agenda. SSC created four advisory committees to support the roundtable. Each committee represents a key area with significant work underway: Architecture Framework, Smart Sourcing, Procurement Benchmarks and Innovative Canadian Enterprises.

On March 1, 2013, SSC issued a Request for Proposal for the Email Transformation Initiative. The contract award was announced on June 25, 2013.

On March 7, 2013, SSC launched a new initiative called Cost-effective Telephone Services. The objective is to migrate from traditional desktop telephone lines to either cellular service or Voice over Internet Protocol.

On March 22, 2013, SSC was committed to invest $20 million of its existing funding to enhance the government’s videoconferencing capacity to assist with travel-cost reductions. The legislation signalled an intention to standardize and consolidate end-user devices (also known as workplace technology devices).

On April 4, 2013, a fourth set of OICs related to SSC were issued. These established that SSC must provide services related to the acquisition and provision of hardware and software for workplace technology devices (i.e. desktop computers, laptops, notebooks, tablets, printers and scanners). SSC is not responsible for providing support services (e.g. help desk support) for workplace technology devices – this responsibility remains with individual departments. In support of this work and through the OICs, a small number of employees were transferred from PWGSC’s Acquisitions Branch to SSC.

Effective September 1, 2015, via OIC, SSC has authority to provide its services to all federal entities and to make available its procurement instruments to the provinces, Canadian municipalities and other jurisdictions. In addition, this OIC mandates that some of the departments and agencies that were not SSC partners are to use SSC’s procurement instruments for certain services.

As illustrated in the diagram below, SSC is also not responsible for IT applications. TBS remains the policy and standard setting authority for all IT services.

Other Significant Events

Transformation Plan

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Transformation Plan Update

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