Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This is a contract that was signed in 2007. It was a renewal to something called the secure channel contract. You may be familiar with the secure channel, which earlier—in 1999 or 2000, I think it was—was originally negotiated. It used something called a PKI technology to keep communications secure. That contract was signed with Bell.
That contract was renewed for the last time in 2007, with the understanding with Bell that the objective of this last renewal was to move beyond the PKI technology to something that was—it's called SAML and I can't remember what SAML stands for—less proprietary than the PKI technology that was being used. The objective of the renewal of the contract was to move off the PKI technology, to finish the dependence and the reliance of the Government of Canada on that particular technology and approach, and to move to a more off-the-shelf kind of solution.
What has happened since 2007 is that gradually the costs of the secure channel went down, but more importantly, the government has in fact migrated off that contract. You may have seen references to the ability now for Canadians to use their credentials from their banks to be authenticated for government programs such as EI or others.
That is the end of that contract; it formally comes to an end.... It has one more option year for next year, but we have completed the migration onto the new system.