Thank you, Mr. Chair, and honourable members.
As the chief information officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, I am pleased to have this opportunity to provide you with more information on the RCMP's information technology systems in response to the 2010 Report of the Auditor General.
I am accompanied today by Brendan Dunne, one of the directors general within the CIO sector and responsible for business solutions.
The RCMP's chief information officer sector supports operational policing by providing members and partners in the Canadian law enforcement community with the technology they need to record, share, and communicate essential police information. The chief information officer sector supports a broad range of applications and systems. These include operational systems, mobile communications tools such as radios, and administrative systems.
The 2010 Report of the Auditor General recognized the RCMP for assessing aging IT risks, for establishing strategies to manage those risks, and for following a portfolio approach. The RCMP accepts the findings and recommendations of this report. I would like to provide an update on the actions taken to address the Auditor General's two key recommendations for the RCMP.
The first recommendation for the RCMP is to develop an action plan for each significant aging IT risk and report regularly on aging IT risks to senior management. The RCMP has made enhancements to its established risk management processes to ensure IT assets are adequately protected and could be recovered or replaced in accordance with organizational priorities. Applying the existing and improved risk management methodology to each aging IT risk will enable the RCMP to develop an action plan for each one.
The RCMP has integrated IM/IT program risk reporting into the corporate governance process. The CIO first reported on this to the RCMP senior management on March 24, 2010. As well, the CIO strategic review council, which is responsible for prioritization and decision-making surrounding IT investment planning within the RCMP, will begin reporting to RCMP's senior executive committee on a regular basis this fiscal year.
The second recommendation for the RCMP is to prioritize IT investments based on the priorities of the organization in order to develop an overall funding strategy. By ensuring that IT risks are incorporated into organizational prioritization and investment processes at the senior management level, the RCMP will be able to develop a corporate funding reallocation strategy. This strategy, to be developed for the 2011-12 fiscal year, will prioritize and baseline all RCMP program activities, including IT.
In recent years, the RCMP has made several investments in critical enhancements and system replacements, including $130 million investment in the Canadian Police Information Centre in 2005, and $111 million investment between 2002 and 2009 in a police records and occurrence system and the police records information management environment to replace the RCMP's legacy system. The RCMP has also invested $22 million in the national integrated interagency information system, which is scheduled for completion this June. This system allows police and federal agencies to access and share appropriate police occurrence information.
Uniquely within the RCMP, radio systems fall under the mandate of the chief information officer. In order to ensure police officer and public safety, the RCMP has taken proactive measures towards national evergreening and modernization of the radio systems. The most significant expenses in radio system evergreening include user equipment, followed by infrastructure updates to enhance the system's capacity.
Some significant investments in radio systems in the past 10 years include $180 million invested in radio modernization projects. These projects include a $55-million project in British Columbia since 2001; $47 million invested in Saskatchewan between 2001 and 2009; $21 million in Newfoundland from 2001 to 2010; $23 million for the creation of a national emergency stock from 2002 to 2010; and $13 million in Ontario, including infrastructure updates to be used for the G8 and G20 summit.
Over the past 20 years, the RCMP has also invested $30 million in the development and modernization of the RCMP's radio dispatch system, which is used in every province and territory.
Within the next five years, the RCMP plans to modernize radio communications in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick under the maritime radio communications initiative.
As you can see, the RCMP has taken many steps to enhance processes and systems to meet operational requirements. We will continue to monitor, identify, and address IT risks and priorities.
I would like to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak with you. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.