Mr. Chair, I am pleased to be here to speak to the Auditor General's recommendations regarding the Treasury Board Secretariat's role in ensuring that Canadians can electronically access government programs and services.
With me today is Sharon Squire from the CIOB, who will help in addressing questions.
As I'm sure you are aware, the service landscape is very complex and requires an integrated approach among Government of Canada departments and agencies.
TBS is committed to doing our part in facilitating access to online services that respect citizens' privacy, and in improving the overall service experience for citizens and businesses, while ensuring the cost-effectiveness of service delivery.
In the area of service, TBS's key role is to provide strategic leadership and policy direction for government-wide service design and delivery, and much work has already been undertaken in this regard.
More than two years ago, we reviewed trends and best practices from other jurisdictions, and we then turned our attention to developing policy direction and guidance in key areas to support what we've seen as best practices. More recently, TBS has been working closely with its federal partners to align efforts to improve service design and delivery.
For example, TBS co-chairs with Service Canada a deputy minister committee on service and federating identity. This committee has established a strategic vision to advance digital self-service delivery and has identified a set of priorities to reach this vision, including priorities for federating identity and a new policy on service and related supporting instruments to guide this.
Also, over the past year the Treasury Board Secretariat has led the web renewal initiative, focusing on one Government of Canada user-centric website known as Canada.ca., which is designed to make Government of Canada online information and services easier to search, access, and use. It has a new look and feel optimized for mobile devices and is organized by themes and by most frequently used information and tasks sought by our users.
Moreover, TBS has made strong progress in providing departments and agencies with leadership and policy guidance relating to service standards and identity management as well as credential assurance, which play a critical role in enabling secure online delivery of government services.
As of December 2012, the government renewed secure online service credentials. We are pleased to say that 26 departments are using the new services now, which has allowed us to reduce our operating costs substantially in this area, and over five years will allow us to drop costs from $51 million at the onset to under $13 million at the end. By leveraging online credentials from Canadian financial institutions, the Government of Canada has enhanced its ability to provide secure log-in services and to benefit from the constantly evolving technologies that are made available through our partners.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat agrees with the audit’s recommendations, and further work is under way to address the issues and recommendations identified in the report.
The Treasury Board Secretariat is currently developing a new policy on service that will provide a strategic and coherent approach to the design and delivery of Government of Canada services. We expect to publish this policy by the spring of 2014. TBS will also develop additional guidance in 2014 to assist departments with implementation.
Building on TBS policy work, the secretariat, in collaboration with Service Canada and other service delivery partners, will develop a government-wide service strategy to improve services to individuals and businesses online and to facilitate this in a cost-effective way with the cost-effective delivery of services. The strategy will be done by March 2015.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat will also continue to work with government departments to provide a simple enrolment process both for individuals and for businesses to transact online securely and cost-effectively with the government. We will continue to collaborate with our provincial and territorial colleagues to enable a simple and secure way to access Government of Canada services across Canada and achieve a “tell us once” approach, where personal information can be reused in confidential and secure ways, furthering proofs of concept right now with our federal partners.
Last but not least, the Government of Canada will continue to explore opportunities for enhanced service delivery through greater collaboration with the private sector and other levels of government to better leverage recent advances in technology.
As you can see, much work has already been done, and we will continue to work with our service delivery partners to further improve online services for Canadians and businesses.
Thank you for your time Mr. Chair. I would be pleased to answer any questions from the committee.