Question Period Note: BENEFITS DELIVERY MODERNIZATION

Update on ESDC’s Benefits Delivery Modernization (BDM) Programme and $2.9B in Budget 2024.

• Mr. Speaker, in 2017, the Government of Canada embarked on a digital transformation to help modernize the benefit delivery experience for some of our key programs, including OAS.

• Thanks to our investments, including through Budget 2024, we have already moved 7.4 million seniors off a 60-year system to a modern platform that seeks to improve their overall experience and address risks.

• In the future, the BDM Programme will build on this success through a similar migration for EI and CPP.

• Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada needs to serve citizens in the way they expect to be served. Embracing digital technologies will lead to more efficient and secure service delivery, improve our productivity, and enhance engagement with the people that we serve.

• Canada’s social services have evolved over the past half century. While the Department is currently able to maintain its service delivery mandate among the complex web of social programs, system age is a concern.
• ESDC’s benefits delivery systems are aging. The OAS system is 60 years old, the EI system is 50 years old, and the CPP system is 20 years old.
• There are considerable risks in continuing to extend the life of our systems.
• Challenges include costly maintenance and upgrades, coding complexities, data integrity and security issues, potential errors and mispayments, extended wait times for clients and reputational risk for government.
• ESDC is investing in the BDM Programme - which will culminate in the migration of OAS, EI and CPP to a modern processing platform, and with new capabilities added over time, transforming service delivery.
• The implementation of benefits estimators for both OAS and EI has helped clients in managing and planning their benefits.

SI ON INSISTE / IF PRESSED

• Budget 2024 provided a total of $2.9 billion over five years, starting in 2024-25 to Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) to migrate both OAS and EI onto a secure, user-friendly platform on the total cost over the 10-year life of BDM of an estimated $6.6B.

• BDM helps to protect vulnerable populations by replacing old systems responsible for the delivery of over $160B in annual benefits.

• Our investments, including through Budget 2024, will amount to less than 0.5% of the total benefit payment when BDM finishes in 2030-31.

• User adoption metrics for productivity have consistently exceeded expectations throughout the transition period. Targeted training, integrated learning tools, dedicated support teams, and other support services will remain available to all employees.
o Examples: Digital adoption software accelerates user proficiency by walking employees through each screen and process (Walk-Me), and ESDC’s first generative AI-powered chatbot provides accurate, real-time answers to 90% of user enquiries (Assist-Me).

• BDM also supports departmental efforts in innovation, including the development and implementation of innovative technologies such as AI Assist tools.

• Mr. Speaker, I am proud of the work undertaken to date and am keen to move forward on work that embraces important technology like AI to further improve on services to Canadians.