Questions and responses 45th Parliament, 1st session May 26, 2025, to present

With regard to the Benefits Delivery Modernization programme: (a) what (i) is the projected scope, (ii) are the full technology requirements, (iii) are the projected procurement needs, presented in the $6.6 billion Programme Authority; (b) what is the itemized breakdown of how the $6.6 billion is projected to be spent; (c) what are the details of travel expenses incurred by the government related to third-party contractors working on the programme since January 1, 2017, including the (i) dates, costs, and flight details of all flights expensed by third-party contractors, (ii) dates, costs, and locations of lodgings expensed by third-party contractors, (iii) dates, costs, and items charged as per diems expensed by third-party contractors; and (d) what is the breakdown of (c)(i) to (c)(iii) by (i) month, (ii) quarter, (iii) third-party contractor?

With regard to the Benefits Delivery Modernization programme: (a) what were the projected scope, full technology requirements and projected procurement needs presented in the initial budget for the programme in 2017; (b) what is the breakdown of costs for each aspect of (a); (c) what (i) is the projected scope, (ii) are the full technology requirements, (iii) are the projected procurement needs, presented in the $6.6 billion Programme Authority; and (d) what is the breakdown of costs for each aspect of (c)?

With regard to the Benefits Delivery Modernization Programme: (a) what is the total estimated cost of the project based on the most recent available data for the Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement, Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan components; (b) what additional amounts are planned to be invested in it; (c) how many hours of training on average have Employment and Social Development Canada employees received to learn how to use the software; (d) in how many cases was the system unable to issue a payment to the client on the requested date; (e) what are the average delays caused by the software, based on the most recent available data; (f) what is the estimated amount paid to each of these firms, broken down by firm, (i) Accenture, (ii) CGI, (iii) Deloitte, (iv) IBM, (v) Fujitsu; and (g) what are all the issues listed in the Issue Log for this modernization?

With regard to the Benefits Delivery Modernization Programme: (a) what is the total amount of travel expenses, broken down by government department, agency or entity, or external service firm, broken down by year from 2017 to date; and (b) what are the details of all accommodation expenses paid by the government, including, for each, the (i) hotel name, (ii) room rate, (iii) number of rooms booked at each rate, (iv) dates and number of nights for which each room was booked, (v) total amount of accommodation expenses paid at each establishment, (vi) cost of the airline ticket, if applicable, specifying the class of ticket, (vii) cities or places visited during the trip?

With regard to travel expenses related to the Benefits Delivery Modernization programme, since January 1, 2017: (a) what is the total number of travel expenses filed; (b) what is the total cost of travel expenses filed; (c) what is the cost of travel expenses filed by public servants; (d) what is the cost of travel expenses filed by third-party contractors; (e) what is the cost of flights expensed by public servants; (f) what is the cost of lodgings expensed by public servants; (g) what is the cost of per diems expensed by public servants; (h) what is the cost of flights expensed by third-party contractors; (i) what is the cost of lodgings expensed by third-party contractors; (j) what is the cost of per diems expensed by third-party contractors; and (k) what is the breakdown of (a) to (j) by month and by quarter?

With regard to benefits delivery modernization: (a) what is the estimated cost based on the latest available data; (b) what will the $473 million announced in the Spring Economic Update 2026 be used for; (c) how many seniors are still waiting for a cheque after submitting an application; and (d) what are all the issues related to Cùram, whether resolved or not, particularly regarding financial data and payments, the receipt of applications, eligibility and entitlement?

With regard to Employment and Social Development Canada's Benefits Delivery Modernization programme: (a) what is the total number of government employees or full time equivalents who worked on this project from 2017 to present, broken down by year; (b) what are the government's projections of how many staff will be required to complete this programme, from now until 2030, broken down by year; (c) which consulting companies have been contracted in relation to the programme, including, for each, the (i) scope of their work, (ii) contract value; (d) what was the cost of the PwC case study referred to in the Auditor General of Canada's report, "Modernizing Information Technology Systems", published on October 19, 2023; (e) what additional work, if any, has PwC been contracted to perform in relation to the programme since the PwC case study referred to in the Auditor General of Canada's report, including the (i) scopes of the work, (ii) contract values; and (f) what is the actual and projected annual cost to administer the programme, in total and broken down by (i) type of cost, (ii) year from 2017 to 2031?