Government should be more transparent about tech costs, says PBO report | CBC News

MPs and senators should ask the government to reveal more information on how much it is investing in digital technology, a new report by the parliamentary budget officer recommends.

In a report made public Friday, Yves Giroux’s office said there is little information available on how much recent technological changes in how services are delivered have cost Canadians.

“Parliamentarians may wish to request that the Government increase transparency by providing comprehensive information on IT investment, costs and savings to strengthen the assessment of spending performance and guide decision making,” says the report authored by analyst Jason Stanton.

The report was prepared in response to a request from Sen. Colin Deacon, who tabled a motion in the Senate in the spring.

It called on the Canadian government “to replace its outdated program delivery and information technology systems by urgently accelerating the implementation of user-friendly, digital solutions that transform the public service delivery experience of Canadians, and ultimately reduces the cost of program delivery.”

However, the PBO’s office said estimating the cost of replacing existing outdated technology wasn’t possible.

“The initial objective for this report was to provide a government-wide perspective; however, there is no centralized information on the total amounts that have been spent or saved on all government initiatives,” says the report.

Instead, the report focused on three areas where the government has invested in digitizing services: tax returns, benefits delivered through Service Canada and online passport renewal.

“While the government has made improvements, there is still inconsistency in the ease of access and use of services,” it says. “As highlighted in Canada’s Digital Government Strategy, some services ‘still involve paper-based processes or the lack of clear online information resulting in clients moving to the phone or in-person service channels. Others are using complex PDF forms for simple procedures, such as informing the government of a change of address or marital status.'”

The report says data from 72 government departments shows that in 2020/21 only 23 per cent of their federal government services, or 319 of 1,375 services, were “available online from end-to-end, however 81 per cent of the applications for those services were completed online.”

While the government’s 2021 budget provides $1 billion over seven years for “digital service transformation initiatives,” “it is unclear whether sufficient funding has been set aside in the federal fiscal framework to address most of the initiatives identified to advance the digitization of public services,” says the report. “It is possible that some of this funding may be used to maintain existing systems rather than to expand the digitization of government services.”

Employment and Social Development Canada, which administers benefit programs such as employment insurance (EI), the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS), is expected to spend $2.2 billion to modernize its computer systems, the report says. OAS is the first benefit to move to the new system.

It has also allocated $9.1 million to improve its existing My Service Canada Account system.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is working on an online passport renewal service, which it expects to cost $46.1 million. The online renewal service is scheduled to begin this fall, and the government expects 3.8 million Canadians to renew their passports through the online service over the next five years.

The Canada Revenue Agency provided the PBO’s office with information about its investment in technology but said it could not be publicly disclosed.

Sen. Deacon said the report highlights the lack of information when it comes to government spending on technology.

“I’m amazed at how hard it has been to quantify the benefits of digitizing,” he said. “The information isn’t really being tracked, and so what savings might be achieved is not identified up front.”

Deacon, an entrepreneur who was named to the Senate in 2018, said tracking those kinds of numbers is standard in technology investments.

He said he hopes the PBO’s report will help spur more digitization of government services.

“I think there is a real reorientation, that is not natural to the public service, that has to happen around digitization, and I’m hoping that this will empower the ministers and the senior public service to start to make those changes.”