Sure, I can. That's a big component to this undertaking.
Across the federal government there are more than 3,000 overlapping and uncoordinated electronic networks within and between departments and agencies. As Shared Services Canada streamlines and renews data centres, it will also at the same time be streamlining the networks that link data centres together. This will lead to further efficiencies and savings.
In addition, many government buildings house several departments. Instead of having one network for one building, each department has its own network. For example, Place du Portage in the national capital region, the Dominion Building in P.E.I., Canada Place in Alberta, and the Guy Favreau Complex in Quebec all have several departments and several different networks. The Guy Favreau Complex alone has nine different networks. This is inefficient and it's difficult to maintain.
The government can obviously save money by building networks once and by serving many departments at the same time. Through consolidation of these networks, we will also be able to provide a higher degree of security. Having an organized and coordinated system of electronic networks means it will be easier to detect and address security issues. That's one of the overarching reasons the Auditor General pointed out for moving ahead with this.
When we look at our aging IT infrastructure, there are concerns about cyber attacks and the security of our information, which is obviously key to delivering services to Canadians, and it's also important that we keep that information safe for Canadians, to safeguard that information. That's another reason why we have to move forward with this project. We have to move forward with transforming the way we are managing our networks, our e-mail system, and our data centres right now.