Question Period Note: Benefits Delivery Modernization

Outlining Shared Services Canada’s (SSC) role in the delivery of the Benefits Delivery Modernization (BDM) program at Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).

• Technology and systems modernization is a fundamental component to advancing the Government’s online benefits delivery of programs and services to Canadians, such as Old Age Security, Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan
  • As part of the efforts to build Government-wide solutions, SSC is directly supporting the modernization of the Benefits Delivery Modernization program through the establishment of both hosted and cloud solutions
  • SSC is supporting foundational infrastructure development and has the main responsibility to design and modernize the Digital infrastructure to support benefits delivery modernization through rigorous project planning, oversight, and governance
  • SSC continues to work in close collaboration with Employment and Social Development Canada to provide guidance and advisory services on the various components comprising the digital solution

If pressed on SSC’s position to support the BDM initiative:

• SSC is well-positioned to support the Business Delivery Modernization initiative. SSC is leveraging its partnerships and industry experts to ensure that the best in-class solutions are developed
• SSC has a dedicated team collaborating with ESDC to ensure successful programme delivery

Overview

BDM is a large-scale transformation project, co-led by ESDC and SSC to address ESDC’s aging benefits applications and infrastructure. The Employment Insurance (EI), Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) programs are currently supported by overly complex systems and processes – the result of incremental changes, extensions and layers being added to systems, some of which were designed in the 1960’s and 1970’s. While notable improvements have been made over time, underlying complexities have not been addressed.

BDM is a ten-year transformation initiative that focusses on the modernization of the benefit delivery services for Employment Insurance (EI), Old Age Security (OAS), and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). It is a business-led transformation to modernize benefits service delivery and develop a more modern and digital client and employee experience. The resulting platform is being created to support this demanding and dynamic business environment and future service delivery expectations. The new BDM solution will, by 2030, provide an easy-to-use, integrated and secure cloud-based platform that is agile, adaptable and responsive to future technological innovations and policy changes. The project is currently in the planning phase and the current focus is the delivery of a new OAS Release. OAS Release 1 is expected to be launched by March 2023 with subsequent releases to follow.

Roles and Responsibilities

SSC’s project team coordinates all implementation activities with SSC teams and adheres to the project schedule, timeline and cost constraints to ensure that the BDM programme has the infrastructure needed to modernize their activities.

SSC’s project team acts the liaison ESDC and internal SSC teams to deliver all aspects of the BDM solution.

SSC’s project team provides insight, feedback and guidance to ESDC throughout the life cycle of the project.

SSC’s technical teams provide significant expertise in the assessment, design and delivery of the major components of BDM such as the Contact Centre Solution and the Containerization Platform.

SSC’s project team has established financial processes and governance which are used to effectively manage and track project financials.

SSC’s project team works with Public Service and Procurement Canada’s Real Property team to ensure continued availability and capacity of the required infrastructure.

SSC regularly engages subject matter experts internally and within industry to support BDM.

Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada provides the required oversight and funding for the project to ESDC and SSC. SSC is committed to continue project work until Treasury Board funding becomes available

ESDC is responsible for the management and support of the newly built applications and their data.

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