Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the committee, my name is Maurice Chénier. I am accompanied by Mr. John Rath-Wilson, Chief Operating Officer, Information Technology Services Branch, and Renée Jolicoeur, Assistant Deputy Minister, Accounting, Banking and Compensation Branch, w

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  That's a very, very good question, and I will do my best to clarify the method that has been put in place to actually go forward with the GENS initiative. Madame Corinne Charette, the CIO of Canada, made the same distinction as Madam Sheila Fraser made about large IT projects.

Government Operations committee  The objective is to take advantage of shared capacity in major cities, and all of that. Definitely.

Government Operations committee  Okay. The concern, first of all, has been around trying to make sure everyone understands—and we have been doing consultation to hopefully try to alleviate and put clarity in those technology dialogues, which is not always easy. There is no such thing as a pre-committed $1 billi

Government Operations committee  Yes. Where business requirements and operational reasons are clear, we are not eliminating the other contracts that are also providing data communications services. We are not putting all our eggs in one basket.

Government Operations committee  Before obtaining the position of Chief Executive Officer, I was Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Public Works. So I was in charge of computer infrastructure operations for our department, Public Works and Government Services Canada. Just before that, Ms. Bourgeois, I

Government Operations committee  I played a role in Secure Channel.

Government Operations committee  My role was as director of the implementation project, so it involved putting the project in place, with a project management approach and discipline, based on the needs expressed to me by the Treasury Board of Canada and our partner departments.

Government Operations committee  Yes, that was in 2005, I think. An analysis of costs and of how costs could be recovered in the long term was submitted to Treasury Board, which established parameters for striking the right balance and determining how to put the system into production, in December 2006.

Government Operations committee  Exactly. If I recall correctly, Ms. Fraser pointed to five elements in relation to Secure Channel. In 2004-2005 a business case was submitted, containing parameters that did not all materialize, for example maximum use of the secure channel. Some departments experienced a slowdow

Government Operations committee  No ma'am, not at that point. I took over the project a little later, at the start of when operations were implemented.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. Yes, undoubtedly. The importance of learning in these large projects is to have a good repertory so it can be referred to at any time. Madam Fraser has really focused on four elements. First, have good governance. If we look at what we're doing no

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Ms. Bourgeois. We have done consultations and surveyed the industry to give ourselves demarcation lines regarding the benefits and potential savings if the networks are consolidated. I think we all agree that we are all on the same wavelength, that 124 networks in the

Government Operations committee  Thank you. The Government of Canada is powered more and more by IT. For four years in a row we have been number one in online service delivery. Our government service is something to be really proud of. We have more and more information technology delivering government services