A government agency created 14 years ago to streamline federal IT services says it has completed about two-thirds of its mandate but has no clear deadline for finishing the job.
Blacklock's Reporter says despite employing 10,000 workers and spending billions on contractors last year, Shared Services Canada (SSC) has made gradual progress, according to an internal briefing note.
“Years ago, Shared Services Canada began to modernize network services for the Government of Canada,” stated an October 1 note from the 2025 Main Estimates.
The agency shifted to enterprise solutions instead of customized systems for each department, aiming to improve efficiency and security.
The modernization effort is considered essential for reliable government service delivery, the note indicated. So far, SSC has closed 490 of 720 legacy data centers, with plans to shut down at least 22 more this fiscal year.
Established in 2011 by the Department of Public Works, SSC was tasked with consolidating IT infrastructure amid concerns of costly duplication.
At the time, the federal government relied on roughly 100 incompatible email systems, hundreds of separate data centers, and over 3,000 intranets.
Then-Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose criticized the old setup as “inefficient,” “uncoordinated,” and “neither economical nor secure.”
The agency’s workforce remains largely technical, with IT employees making up about 64% of its 10,000-person staff.
SSC also relies heavily on external contractors. In 2024, it awarded 12,320 contracts and amendments valued at approximately $4.3 billion, including 2,599 non-competitive contracts worth $565 million, according to the briefing note.
SSC was initially tasked with unifying electronic systems through a seven-year, $400 million contract with Bell Canada and CGI Information Systems Inc. The total cost of the program remains undisclosed.
Former Auditor General Michael Ferguson, who reviewed the federal IT landscape in 2014, criticized the previous system for discouraging collaboration.
“There is no incentive for departments to share information,” he testified before the Commons public accounts committee. He called for a government-wide strategy and a standardized method for tracking IT service costs to improve efficiency and savings.
Ferguson passed away in 2019, and Ambrose left Parliament in 2017. Meanwhile, SSC continues its work, with no firm completion date in sight.