Mr. Speaker, with regard to part (a), in 2017, the benefits delivery modernization program was in the initial planning or program definition phase. As is typical and expected for programs of this size and magnitude, at the program definition stage there is uncertainty around the program’s overall scope, full requirements, including the technology solutions, and the procurement necessary to support those solutions. The combination of these factors means that the initial $1.7-billion cost was an initial planning assumption based on what was known at the time. In multi-year, large-scale IT transformations, it is very difficult to forecast costs with any degree of precision at program inception. As expected and known, the cost profile would evolve and move upwards as further planning, deeper discovery and learned experience become clearer.
With regard to part (b), preliminary benchmarking exercises and third party validations were used to support those initial planning efforts, again with the information known at the time. As the program has evolved and more is known about the sheer complexity of unravelling decades of IT systems structure, benefits delivery modernization, BDM, is in a better position to offer more realistic cost forecasts. This case study used a data-driven approach to develop a top-down rough order of magnitude costs for the BDM program based on the experiences of other comparator organizations selected for the study that were undertaking IT transformation projects related to benefits delivery modernization. These organizations are located in Australia, Scotland, the U.K., Ontario and New Zealand. While no comparator organizations were a match for the BDM’s scope and complexity, the report did conclude that based on the experiences of those organizations, cost and time would increase. A secondary analysis was performed to consider these findings and impacts of higher inflation, actual expenditures and the inherent complexity of decades-old IT systems on overall program costs.