Brison promises digital makeover for federal government
TORONTO On Sept. 19, the federal government will take a step toward replacing the scandal-plagued Phoenix payroll system, holding a “vendor day” where public servants will have an opportunity to try out working prototypes of new systems.
But it’s not just Phoenix that Ottawa is moving to replace — it’s the entire process of technology procurement that led to the mess in the first place.
Scott Brison, Treasury Board president and minister responsible for digital transformation, was at Twitter Canada’s Toronto headquarters Thursday, speaking to an audience of tech executives and government and university representatives.
Brison said the Phoenix payroll debacle is a prime example of how the federal government does technology procurement wrong.
“We used to do, as a government, we’d do 250 page (requests for proposals) and then the vendors would provide a 250 page proposal, and then years later you’d get a project that would already be out of date,” Brison said in an interview with the Financial Post following the Twitter event.
“First of all, we’re not going to treat IT transformation as a costcutting exercise — there may be savings down the road, but you don’t take the savings during the transformation. It actually costs money to do good digital transformation.”
In the case of Phoenix, the new payroll system was supposed to centralize payroll workers in Miramichi, N.B., and provide cost savings, but it didn’t work, underpaying many workers and creating a years-long scandal that Auditor General Michael Ferguson called an “incomprehensible failure.” A government report earlier this year estimated that Phoenix will cost the government $2.5 billion over five years to address the problems.
Brison said with efforts like a “vendor day” to test out prototypes, the government is making sure it doesn’t make the same mistakes over again.
“Over the coming months we will have a better idea of the advantages of different prototypes and systems, and we’re hoping we have a way forward in terms of a new pay system by sometime in the spring,” he said.
Those massive requests for proposals are a major source of frustration for people in the tech sector. Instead of being able to sell the government industry-standard products, the government would ask for unwieldy bespoke systems with too many bells and whistles, shutting out all but the largest players from bidding.
Brison said beyond just fixing Ottawa’s technology boondoggles like Phoenix, he wants to instil a more nimble culture in government.
“If they fail, and they will inevitably fail if you’re trying new things, we want to learn from those new experiences too, because it’s from those failures we can actually learn lessons and maybe try things differently,” Brison said.
“We want to learn from both the successes and the failures.”