Question Period Note: Shared Services Canada 2021 to 2022 Departmental Results Report

The President of the Treasury Board tabled Shared Services Canada’s 2021-22 Departmental Results Report in Parliament on December 2, 2022. This report provides details on Shared Services Canada’s (SSC) mandate, commitments and results achieved in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

• SSC had many accomplishments in 2021-22 as it played a key role in supporting the shift to a hybrid workplace employees and equipping them with modern digital tools
  • SSC’s enterprise approach was instrumental in ensuring the continued secure, fast and reliable delivery of critical programs and benefits to Canadians during the pandemic
  • SSC’s experience in delivering digital services to its partners helped it to provide quick and agile IT solutions during this time of transition, such as:
  • Fully enabling Microsoft 365 for 39 partners, and equipping employees with the tools to collaborate internally and roll out programs and benefits
  • Closing 53 small and medium sized legacy data centres following workload migrations to modern hosting solutions

If pressed on further accomplishments:

• SSC’s work with partners across the Government of Canada allowed them to rely on a secure and efficient digital infrastructure to deliver critical online services to Canadians. For example:
  • SSC supported Statistics Canada in the first-ever Canadian digital census -by powering 700 servers to support census collection, data processing and dissemination and equipping 22 virtual offices and six call centres across the country for Census staff

If pressed on Expenses and Revenues:

• Expenses for 2021-22 were $593 million higher than planned. Salaries and employee benefits represented the largest portion of expenses, followed by telecommunications and rentals expenses as the three major expenses
• Revenues for 2021-22 were $282 million higher than planned. Of these, the majority are re-spendable revenues related to IT infrastructure services provided to partner organizations and other departments and agencies on a cost recoverable basis

If pressed on Procurement:

• In 2021-22, SSC developed an agile contracting framework to execute procurement projects that will provide better contract outcomes, faster delivery, more use of private sector expertise and that better meets the needs of the end-user
• SSC is focused on effective IT procurement that drives innovation and economic growth, and advances environmental and socio-economic objectives, including relations with Indigenous peoples

If pressed on Human Resources and Pay System:

• SSC is working with TBS and PSPC to examine the viability of adopting a new government-wide model for HR and Pay and identify an HR and Pay solution that will serve the enterprise and government employees
• Three additional departments were added to the pilot project that will allow SSC to test the software against more complex pay requirements and to assess the accessibility features of the tool and operability in both official languages
• SSC will determine a recommendation based on the results and data gathered from pilot studies with select partner departments

If pressed on Cloud:

• In 2021-22, SSC made continuous upgrades to its client-facing Cloud Services Portal and added the Cloud Documentation Portal as an enterprise platform to share information with departments and agencies to support their migration to cloud

If pressed on Government of Canada Network Hubs:

• A Government of Canada Network Hub provides direct and secure access to network providers, such as the cloud, at sites across the country rather than routing everything through the National Capital Region
• In 2021-22, SSC completed the upgrades to two Government of Canada Network Hubs in Toronto and Montreal, and implemented Secure Cloud Enablement and Defence into both hubs
• Through these Government of Canada Network Hubs, SSC also established a Secure Cloud to Ground connection for 18 partner departments to provide secure communication between the network and Cloud Service Providers

If pressed on Telecommunication Tools:

• In 2021-22, the Teams component of M365, which offers conferencing capabilities, has been deployed to all of SSC partner departments. M365 capabilities have also been fully enabled for 39 out of 45 partners with built-in security requirements
• There are only 13 remaining partner departments using an in-house email service which will be included in the next migration. All other departments have now been migrated to the M365 enterprise email
• The increased use of mobile devices and desktop communications throughout the federal government has reduced the need for traditional, wired office desk phones. SSC is retiring all landlines, with the exception of those identified as essential. By the end of 2021-22, SSC vendors disconnected 17,515 fixed lines out of the total 48,586 identified by partner departments

The Departmental Results Report informs parliamentarians and Canadians of the results achieved by Shared Services Canada for Canadians, and the resources used to achieve those results. A retrospective view is provided for 2021-22 against the plans, priorities and expected results that were set out in the Departmental Plan for the year.

The Departmental Results Report is based on the Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory approved for 2021-22.

The 2021-22 Departmental Results Report highlights how SSC continued its efforts to modernize its networks and roll-out modern collaboration tools to support partner departments’ needs.

Shared Services Canada delivered on responsibilities over the past year by providing modern, secure and reliable services to Government organizations so they could deliver digital programs and services that Canadians need.

Planned expenditures for 2021-22 were $2,749 million, while actual expenditures were $3,342 million. Planned revenues were $665 million, while actual revenues were $947 million.

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