Needless to say, I'm a little taken aback by the commentary about the chief information officer branch of the Treasury Board being aware of these issues, not formally identifying an issue as an area of importance for the government, and who hasn't done really too much.
I'm also concerned about the involvement of Public Works, and I'll express additional confusion because I hear “secure channel”, I hear “global case management”, and I hear “GENS”, the Government Enterprise Network Services project. We, in the government operations committee, have spent an awfully long time trying to get to the bottom of what's happening with GENS, for example, which seems to be an effort on the part of Public Works to establish a network system that will provide the opportunity for other departments to enhance their IM/IT processes. At least that is the impression I get.
To be perfectly honest, I used to work in the business, and I'm still somewhat confused. I'm a bit surprised to now hear that Public Works itself is clearly having its own challenges in managing its own IT systems and its own planning for the future.
Can you help a little bit in just clarifying this? Can you shed any light? Have you done any investigation of the GENS proposal?