Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
As you indicated, my name is Cliff Groen. I am the associate deputy minister for the Department of Employment and Social Development and chief operating officer for Service Canada.
I would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather today is the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
On behalf of the department, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee today. It's a pleasure for me to be here because this program is very important for all Canadians. I'm happy to be here to answer your questions.
I am accompanied today by my colleague Brian Hickey. As indicated, he is the assistant deputy minister of the benefits delivery modernization implementation and service design branch.
As this committee is aware, our department has been investing in benefits delivery modernization, which is replacing legacy technology platforms that deliver income security benefits, such as old age security, employment insurance and the Canada pension plan, because Canadians absolutely deserve functional, responsive and dependable services. OAS, EI and CPP are the foundations of Canada's social safety net, and any interruption on account of aging systems could significantly affect recipients in meeting their basic daily needs.
We have long known that the IT systems that support these critical benefits were at serious risk of failure. In fact, back in 2010, the Office of the Auditor General highlighted the absolute need to take action to ensure that these important benefits will continue to be there for Canadians.
The old age security program was the first to be onboarded to the new platform last year. The system is operating as expected and is delivering results for Canadians already.
As of April 30, 2026, the new system has issued nearly 100 million payments to more than 7.7 million Canadians, with a total value of nearly $87.5 billion.
Work has also already begun to move the employment insurance program onto the new platform. In fall 2025, the first EI benefit to move to the platform was successfully deployed, as part of a series of upcoming releases. It was EI compassionate care benefits for the self-employed.
The call centre technology modernization project is also well under way. In fact, just last month the first of 14 call centres was successfully deployed onto the new call centre platform.
In summary, the benefits delivery modernization program, or BDM, is more than just an old age security migration; it is a digital transformation across multiple programs and business lines.
It's clear that even one senior citizen waiting months for their old age security benefits is one senior too many. We take this situation very seriously.
An OAS action plan was implemented to improve service delivery results, decreasing the overall inventory of new applications, and reducing the number of clients waiting for initial payment beyond the first month to 50,000 at the end of April, which is a decline of 35,000 since the end of January.
Mr. Chair, I'd also like to take a moment to reiterate the costs for the programs very clearly.
First, from 2017, with the initial authority to start the initial planning for the BDM program through to the end of the last calendar year, December 2025, $1.8 billion has been spent on the BDM program. That includes the OAS migration completed last year. The OAS project was actually delivered approximately 6% under budget.
Second, it's important to understand that the figure of $6.6 billion represents an overall multi-year estimated forecast for the entire BDM program through 2030-31. In addition to OAS, EI and call centres—all of which have either been completed or are under way—this work also includes migrating CPP to the new platform. That work has not yet begun. The funding also includes contingency funding—which is essential for any large projects of this scale—that has not been required, to date.
Third, the estimate of the total cost has evolved. The myriad of costs needed to be considered could not possibly have been known at the outset of this program. That was why very deliberately the initial estimate was of a rough order of magnitude. The estimate was established and then costs evolved as expected.
As the largest transformation in the history of the Government of Canada, we are doing many things for the first time. Hence it is very clearly understood why, as expected, the costs have evolved.
I'd now like to clarify a funding announcement in the recent spring economic update.
Specifically, $176 million was proposed in the 2026 spring economic update to increase old age security processing capacity to address increased workload given the continued increase in the number of old age security beneficiaries, and for system maintenance and support. This funding was not for the projects within the BDM program; the $6.6 billion program estimate will not increase.
My apologies, Mr. Chair, for going too long.
This crucial transformation has been undertaken in a responsible and transparent manner in a series of well-planned and prudent phases within the appropriated budget.
I'm very pleased to be here today to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you.
