Thank you.
How can we make sure that Canadians receiving old age security do not suffer the same problems as we had with Phoenix? That is a question I am asked once a week. We have taken a number of steps in this regard.
First, we have put a new governance structure in place to meet the challenge associated with the overall oversight of the benefits delivery modernization program. Employment and Social Development Canada is managing the project, but we are not alone. Senior officials at Treasury Board Secretariat, Supply and Services Canada and Shared Services Canada are working together to provide overall oversight of the program.
Second, we are not counting on the anticipated efficiency gains before they have been achieved. That was one of the big problems in the case of the Phoenix pay system. We had changed the staffing levels for processing applications based on our projections. Then we did not have enough employees to process the applications. We will not be doing that for the benefits delivery modernization program. We are going to make sure that we always have enough employees to process the applications.
Third, we have implemented a process for bringing the system online gradually rather than doing it for all clients at the same time. As Mr. Thompson said, 600,000 client files have already been onboarded to the new system in the initial operation. It is working well at present.
And last, we have also put a pilot project in place to test all of the new system's processes before deploying it for new clients.
This means that we have learned lessons from the experience involved with the Phoenix system in order to avoid reproducing the same failures in the case of the benefits delivery modernization program.