Speaking about opportunities, how about a CGI/Emergis consortium for this job!
Wired Canada to cost $5B
Federal departments' services, information go on Web in 2004
Kathryn May, The Ottawa Citizen - December 12, 1999
Ottawa
Federal officials say the estimated price tag of the Chretien government's pledge to get the
government online by 2004 includes the building of new infrastructure and putting the mounds
of government information and programs on the Web.
The big cost is getting departments and agencies to use the Internet to re-engineer how they
do business. Until now, departments have tended to automate old business practices and
paper-based transactions and use the Internet as a way to serve clients like the telephone.
Technology offers huge opportunities for new ways to organize programs and offer services. For
Canadians with the technology, it means paperless one-stop shopping for all federal, provincial
and municipal government services.
Canadians will be able to file income tax and get the refund directly deposited into their account
without ever knowing the transaction went through Revenue Canada. Or they will be able to plug
in a new address and the system instantly changes every document filed with the three levels
of government.
With Y2K repairs completed, departments and agencies will be throwing themselves into how to
re-engineer their programs and calculating the possible cost of getting them online.
Some large departments have already begun; others have barely managed to get basic
department information on existing Web sites.
The first step is to connect all federal departments and agencies to one secure, high-speed
network that will deliver federal services over the Internet. The channel is expected to cost
about $400 million when it is built. It will be linked to Canada's online banking systems, the
Receiver General and, eventually, the provincial and municipal governments.
The backbone of that network is a secure channel, equipped with the latest digital bells and
whistles, for which the government is currently drafting a final request for proposals. The tender
call is already two months late, but the government hopes to call bids within the next two
months.
The scope and size of the project is unprecedented and will consume departmental time in the
drive to meet the 2004 deadline. Much of the rest of the cost of the move into cyberspace will
happen inside the departments.
The government and technology industry have worked closely over the past year to develop the
network and the underlying secure channel. So far, $26 million has been set aside to develop a
prototype.
The network underpins the Chretien government's "Connecting Canadians" agenda to hook
Canadians up to each other and the rest of the world by 2000. As part of that program, all
federal programs and services will be electronically available when and where Canadians want
them by 2004.
The secure channel project is far too complex for one company and the government is
expecting three or four consortiums to submit proposals. Once the call goes out, the
technology industry has 40 days to respond with bids.
The government originally planned to pick the two best proposals and contribute $200,000 to
each for a prototype. The contract would go to bidder of the winning prototype.
The industry scotched that plan, arguing such a runoff could cost a consortium up to $1 million
to build a prototype. The government has now decided to pick the winning consortium from the
proposals.
Once the winner is selected, the prototype will be built in four phases.
Linda Lizotte-MacPherson, the government's chief information officer, said the channel, which
will provide the entrance or "electronic access" to all federal services, will have three main
features: built-in intelligence, security and be large enough to handle peak volumes and any
increase in traffic over the years.
A user that hooks into the government's portal or door must go through the secure channel to
do any transaction, whether filing taxes or applying for employment insurance. Behind the
scenes, the channel's intelligence features will determine where any request should go and its
security system will ensure its contents are confidential and tamper-proof and users' identity
verified.
It will have a security system -- known as public key infrastructure -- that is built around the
latest technology in encryption, digital signatures, time-stamping and signature validation to
identify who sent the message; ensure its contents cannot be stolen or tampered with and
validate the signature.
Ms. Lizotte-MacPherson said transactions require different levels of security depending on their
content and the system should be able to adjust the security level for each transaction. |
