Government of Canada

Enabling e-government: Canada stays on leading edge of citizen-centric program delivery

“Management of the consortium team has been effective…the project is on track. Secure Channel will achieve its goal of enabling the GoL initiative."

Maurice Chénier, Director, Public Works and Government Services Canada

On July 27, 2000, the Government of Canada (GoC) announced it would proceed with the development of an e-platform service, called the Secure Channel (SC) project, a key component of the larger Government On-Line (GoL) initiative to enable the GoC to deliver on-line information, programs and services to Canadians. In June 2001, CGI, in league with an impressive consortium team of high-technology and IT industry leaders led by BCE Nexxia Inc., began work on this multi-year project to make Canada known worldwide as the most connected country to its citizens…

The Challenge
As an enabling-technologies project, SC is a major component of the shared technology infrastructure that will enable citizens to access federal services over the Internet reliably and securely. As a centrally managed, centrally-delivered system, it will provide the connectivity and underlying support services necessary to deliver government programs and services electronically.

SC development, which follows a strict timeline for delivery of milestones, beginning with architecture and design followed by a series of three initial build phases, hinges on key business drivers deemed essential by the GoC for safe, reliable, citizen-centric delivery: that government information and services be accessible regardless of location, access, time or group; that information services be protected and authenticated; that the government be seen as an integrated enterprise, with no 'wrong door' for access; that service delivery be cost effective and client-responsive, by harmonizing citizen requests.

Understanding how the government would take advantage of the SC involved a number of considerations. In its function of serving individuals, businesses and trusted partners on the one hand while addressing government departments on the other, the SC solution must accommodate existing policy framework but also adapt to policy changes as they arise. Going beyond mainstream solutions is key.

The Strategy
Playing a pivotal role, CGI, a member of the SC team consortium responsible for overall project management, architecture, design, build, departmental interface and operations, had invested almost two years of conceptual R&D prior to obtaining the contract, with assistance from the CGI's Strategic Investment Program, through which CGI invests in emerging technologies to help support client-driven projects.

The research is being applied to the SC through the delivery of prototypes, based on a clearly defined process of assessing the best technology fits and designing and incrementally building on this dynamic environment. "CGI provided a key piece of research to advance and help deliver the prototype for Build 1, " said Maurice Chénier, Director of the Secure Channel Project.

• World-class network infrastructure with national reach advanced security infrastructure
• Creative solutions to « broker » both government program and common infrastructure services
• Common, shared infrastructure—scalable, reliable and secure
• Network infrastructure: GENet to start, Broadband, Redundant circuits, Internet, PSTN, Wireless, Satellite connectivity

The Results
Under the proposed design, the SC will offer a choice in electronic channels of service delivery, providing connectivity through linkages to multiple government environments and deliver common services such as security, authentication and application integration services while maintaining constant policy awareness in all aspects of its architecture. As of March 2002, Build 1 and the Architecture and Design were successfully completed, establishing the high level standards and vision that will be modified in subsequent phases throughout the full-scale deployment of the SC and its services. Build 2, which focused on a departmental application for change of address at Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, achieved pre-production operational readiness. Continued Chénier, "Management of the consortium team has been effective…the project is on track. SC will achieve its goal of enabling the GoL initiative."