Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members.
I am pleased to be here today, alongside my colleagues from the Treasury Board Secretariat, to support your important study into the Government of Canada contract awarded to Canada Life for the administration of the public service health care plan.
Let me begin by acknowledging that given that we are meeting in the national capital region, we are gathered on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples.
With me today is Pascale Archambault, acting director general of the business and technology solutions sector at Public Services and Procurement Canada, or PSPC.
As a common service provider for procurement, PSPC plays an important role in the daily operations of the Government of Canada, supporting federal departments and agencies to deliver their mandates.
As the central purchaser, PSPC has managed approximately $25 billion in procurements of goods and services on behalf of client departments in the past three fiscal years.
Therefore, our support to the Treasury Board Secretariat in ensuring the delivery of the public service health care plan, the largest health care plan in Canada, is a core priority for us.
I would like to outline a few key facts related to the procurement of the administrator for the plan.
As part of our commitment to open, fair and transparent competitive processes, Canada began the process to retender this requirement in 2018.
This extensive, multi-year procurement process included multiple rounds of industry engagement on the administrative service requirements, industry best practices, socio-economic objectives—including indigenous participation and greening—and our proposed procurement approach. In addition, at the request of industry, we postponed the RFP release by six months due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three bids were submitted by major players in the health care plan administration space, which were evaluated against the government's technical and financial criteria. Significantly, all three bids were found to be compliant, with the bid from Canada Life ultimately ranking first. The contract was awarded to Canada Life on November 30, 2021. The current contract is valued at $514 million for eight and a half years, and there are options available to extend the contract.
I would like to underscore the fact that this was a competitive process with three compliant bidders, evaluated against rigorous criteria established by both the technical authority at Treasury Board Secretariat and the contracting authority at PSPC.
Of note, the contract included a start-up phase of 18 months for Canada Life to take the necessary steps to prepare to administer the plan. The operations phase began July 1, 2023 and includes a six-month transition period.
As with any large switch from one service provider to another, especially on programs of this magnitude, issues with transition are not unexpected and are therefore planned for by all parties.
PSPC and the Treasury Board Secretariat have worked in close collaboration with Canada Life through this period to improve service for members, as well as to ensure communications on plan design changes that are the responsibility of the Government of Canada. In fact, as of today, Canada Life has advised the government that call centre wait times are one to three minutes, and their average claim processing time is 2.2 days.
There is still work to do, and we have lessons learned that will be applied both to this contract and to other major transitions. However, we are trending towards the service level that members expect and have the processes and mechanisms in place to respond as issues arise.
Mr. Chair, in everything we do, our overriding aim is clear: It is to provide the goods and services that departments need to deliver their programs at the best value to Canadians. We are committed to continuing to work closely with both the Treasury Board Secretariat and Canada Life to ensure that plan members receive the services that they deserve.
Thank you.
I'll now turn to my colleague.