Question Period Note: Tabling of Employment and Social Development Canada’s Supplementary Estimates (B) for Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2025

Why is Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) requesting $1.2 million for the
Benefits Delivery Modernization programme - Common Benefits Delivery (CBD) in the
Supplementary Estimates (B) for fiscal year ending March 31, 2025?

This funding request is part of a broader initiative to modernize benefit delivery
through digital transformation. The Benefits Delivery Modernization (BDM)
Programme is a multi-year cross-functional initiative designed to enhance ESDC’s
delivery of government core benefits by improving digital access and centralizing
benefits administration.
• The requested $1.2 million is the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) portion of the
total reprofile request of $22 million (which includes EI and CPP funding) is
necessary to ensure continued operations and developments for Service Delivery
Network (SDN) and the Integrated Channel-Common Interface (ICCI) projects, which
are critical for seamless benefits processing across EI, OAS and CPP.
• This initiative responds directly to the 2022 Strategic Assessment recommendations
led by Canada’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), aligning BDM with the government?wide modernization efforts. This includes integrating cloud solutions, digital access
tools, and service management frameworks to enhance user experience across
multiple benefits.

The reference level reprofile will fund the continued enhancement of the CBD platform’s core
benefit-agnostic capabilities in 2024 to 2025 to further enable the transformation. Key
deliverables it will support include the maintenance of the common benefit delivery platform
including cloud and software licensing costs, advancement of required ancillary technologies
(e.g., knowledge management, Identity and Access Management, Feedback Tool),
completing the design of a transformed national Service Delivery Network (SDN), as well as
advancing on implementing an integrated client experience model (ICCI).
• In addition, it will support the horizontal functions (e.g., finance, human resources,
administrative documents, etc.) that are critical to operating a multi-year large and complex
programme like BDM.
• The amount in this request is being prioritized to cover activities in 2024 to 2025 in alignment
with the refreshed BDM Roadmap that articulates key transformation capabilities to complete
deliverables identified as part of Tranche 1.

Table: Funding for the Benefits Delivery Modernization programme - Common Benefits
Delivery (CBD)
Funding (in $) and Full Time Equivalent (FTE)

FTE
Existing Funding (Main Estimates 2024-25): 11
Supplementary Estimates (B): 12
Total Funding: 23

Salary
Existing Funding (Main Estimates 2024-25): 1,105,588
Supplementary Estimates (B): 1,163,353
Total Funding: 2,268,941
Operating and maintenance
Existing Funding (Main Estimates 2024-25): 3,177,628
Supplementary Estimates (B): 0
Total Funding: 3,177,628

Total Operating (Vote 1)
Existing Funding (Main Estimates 2024-25): 4,283,216
Supplementary Estimates (B): 1,163,353
Total Funding: 5,446,569

Grants and Contributions (Vote 5)
Existing Funding (Main Estimates 2024-25): 0
Supplementary Estimates (B): 0
Total Funding: 0

Sub-Total
Existing Funding (Main Estimates 2024-25): 4,283,216
Supplementary Estimates (B): 1,163,353
Total Funding: 5,446,569

Employee benefit plans
Existing Funding (Main Estimates 2024-25): 0
Supplementary Estimates (B): 0
Total Funding: 0

Total Funding
Existing Funding (Main Estimates 2024-25): 4,283,216
Supplementary Estimates (B): 1,163,353
Total Funding: 5,446,569 Serving Canadians is our top priority, and the success of this project is non-negotiable. We are
building a system that will be dependable and streamlined – a system that will live up to the kind
of service Canadians deserve.”
Statement from the Minister of Citizen’s Services on the Auditor General’s report on Benefits
Delivery modernization.
October 19, 2023.