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The federal government is pulling an about-face on plans to bring all of its various agency and departmental websites under the Canada.ca domain name.
The concept for the massive website modernization project is quietly being killed as it’s suffered from delays and a ballooning budget.
The government had intended to combine all of its 90 disparate department and agency websites under the domain.
Now, only four high web traffic departments – Canada Revenue Agency, Health Canada, Environment Canada and Immigration and Citizenship Canada – are moving to Canada.ca.
The rest of the 86 departments and agencies can switch if they want to, or they can modernize their own websites and maintain their current internet addresses.
The move comes as Scott Brison, the president of Treasury Board of Canada, announced on Tuesday morning the creation of the Canadian Digital Service, which will be responsible for managing and updating the federal governments websites while attempting to modernize the way the government communicates and provides services to Canadian citizens.
“As I have often said, in this world you’re either digital or you’re dead. We can’t be a Blockbuster government serving a Netflix citizenry!” Brison said in a blog post announcing the new service.
The service will be made up of 14 tech-savvy government workers who will be housed within Treasury Board. It will have a $25.5 million budget, spread over five years.
The specific modernization projects the service will take on have not been announced, though the 86 departments not moving to Canada.ca can work with the service to update their presence online.
Originally, those departments were supposed to have moved underneath the Canada.ca banner by the end of 2017. Once migrated, the government expected to save money and become more efficient through streamlining the technological needs of dozens of departments and agencies by placing all of their information, forms and services on one easy-to-remember website.
But that plan was hampered by turbulence from the start, said Jean-Luc Ferland, a spokesman for Brison.
“The 2012 plan to migrate all government web content to the Canada.ca platform under-delivered from the beginning in part due to poor project management, planning and underfunding from the outset by the previous Conservative government,” said Ferland.
“We are refocusing project funds where they can make the biggest impact to improve Canadians’ online experiences. Because we are focusing on Canadians’ online experience, all institutions, whether migrating or not, will adopt a user-centric approach to improve their web content, and ensure materials are easy to find under common themes in a way that is intuitive.”
However, the refocusing of project funds comes after millions have already been dumped into the Canada.ca boondoggle, by both the Conservatives and the Liberals.
Departments have had to spend millions to get their information off of their old websites and onto Canada.ca. Initially budgeted to cost $1.45 million, a contract was awarded to technology firm Adobe Corp. to handle the management of the federal government website. The cost of that contract has skyrocketed to more than $14.9 million. Federal departments have also spent $19.8 million more in order to ready for the switch to Canada.ca. For most of those departments, that switch may not happen.
In some cases, the extra costs incurred by departments to prepare for the Canada.ca conversion were strenuous. Parks Canada hired additional staff to specifically prepare for the website switchover. According to a document obtained by the Citizen under the Access to Information Act from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, that department expected a budget shortfall of $579,000 in 2014-2015 and an additional $1.3 million in 2015-2016 due to costs associated with getting ready to switch its old website over to the new Canada.ca website. Spending estimates for 2016-2017 were redacted by the government in the document.
The push to consolidate all sites on Canada.ca cost the federal government one of its top bureaucrats who said he resigned from his position specifically because he believed the move to a single unified website could hamper the ability of individual departments to disseminate timely information to Canadians.
Wayne Smith, formerly the chief statistician with Statistics Canada, abruptly quit his position last September, accusing the federal government of hobbling his agency’s independence by forcing it to participate in the Canada.ca project. Of particular concern to Smith was the mandate to see all content on Canada.ca, which would include Statistics Canada reports and research, published by employees at Service Canada, the department responsible for Canada.ca, and not Statistics Canada employees.
He also said the massive project had become a financial albatross for many departments, which have been ordered to build the costs of the web renewal initiative into their annual budgets.
Timeline
2012 – Conservative government announces Canada.ca initiative. Idea would consolidate all government departments and agencies under a single web address allowing people to find information easier.
March 2015 – Adobe Corp. awarded contract to manage Canada.ca domain for $1.54 million.
2015 – Departments ordered to begin preparing to switch from their old websites to Canada.ca. Departments told to budget for costs of the switch.
August 2016 – Content from the first departments to switch to Canada.ca start showing up on the new website.
July 2017 – Government cancels the initiative. Moving to Canada.ca is no longer mandatory.
查看原文...
The concept for the massive website modernization project is quietly being killed as it’s suffered from delays and a ballooning budget.
The government had intended to combine all of its 90 disparate department and agency websites under the domain.
Now, only four high web traffic departments – Canada Revenue Agency, Health Canada, Environment Canada and Immigration and Citizenship Canada – are moving to Canada.ca.
The rest of the 86 departments and agencies can switch if they want to, or they can modernize their own websites and maintain their current internet addresses.
The move comes as Scott Brison, the president of Treasury Board of Canada, announced on Tuesday morning the creation of the Canadian Digital Service, which will be responsible for managing and updating the federal governments websites while attempting to modernize the way the government communicates and provides services to Canadian citizens.
“As I have often said, in this world you’re either digital or you’re dead. We can’t be a Blockbuster government serving a Netflix citizenry!” Brison said in a blog post announcing the new service.
The service will be made up of 14 tech-savvy government workers who will be housed within Treasury Board. It will have a $25.5 million budget, spread over five years.
The specific modernization projects the service will take on have not been announced, though the 86 departments not moving to Canada.ca can work with the service to update their presence online.
Originally, those departments were supposed to have moved underneath the Canada.ca banner by the end of 2017. Once migrated, the government expected to save money and become more efficient through streamlining the technological needs of dozens of departments and agencies by placing all of their information, forms and services on one easy-to-remember website.
But that plan was hampered by turbulence from the start, said Jean-Luc Ferland, a spokesman for Brison.
“The 2012 plan to migrate all government web content to the Canada.ca platform under-delivered from the beginning in part due to poor project management, planning and underfunding from the outset by the previous Conservative government,” said Ferland.
“We are refocusing project funds where they can make the biggest impact to improve Canadians’ online experiences. Because we are focusing on Canadians’ online experience, all institutions, whether migrating or not, will adopt a user-centric approach to improve their web content, and ensure materials are easy to find under common themes in a way that is intuitive.”
However, the refocusing of project funds comes after millions have already been dumped into the Canada.ca boondoggle, by both the Conservatives and the Liberals.
Departments have had to spend millions to get their information off of their old websites and onto Canada.ca. Initially budgeted to cost $1.45 million, a contract was awarded to technology firm Adobe Corp. to handle the management of the federal government website. The cost of that contract has skyrocketed to more than $14.9 million. Federal departments have also spent $19.8 million more in order to ready for the switch to Canada.ca. For most of those departments, that switch may not happen.
In some cases, the extra costs incurred by departments to prepare for the Canada.ca conversion were strenuous. Parks Canada hired additional staff to specifically prepare for the website switchover. According to a document obtained by the Citizen under the Access to Information Act from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, that department expected a budget shortfall of $579,000 in 2014-2015 and an additional $1.3 million in 2015-2016 due to costs associated with getting ready to switch its old website over to the new Canada.ca website. Spending estimates for 2016-2017 were redacted by the government in the document.
The push to consolidate all sites on Canada.ca cost the federal government one of its top bureaucrats who said he resigned from his position specifically because he believed the move to a single unified website could hamper the ability of individual departments to disseminate timely information to Canadians.
Wayne Smith, formerly the chief statistician with Statistics Canada, abruptly quit his position last September, accusing the federal government of hobbling his agency’s independence by forcing it to participate in the Canada.ca project. Of particular concern to Smith was the mandate to see all content on Canada.ca, which would include Statistics Canada reports and research, published by employees at Service Canada, the department responsible for Canada.ca, and not Statistics Canada employees.
He also said the massive project had become a financial albatross for many departments, which have been ordered to build the costs of the web renewal initiative into their annual budgets.
Timeline
2012 – Conservative government announces Canada.ca initiative. Idea would consolidate all government departments and agencies under a single web address allowing people to find information easier.
March 2015 – Adobe Corp. awarded contract to manage Canada.ca domain for $1.54 million.
2015 – Departments ordered to begin preparing to switch from their old websites to Canada.ca. Departments told to budget for costs of the switch.
August 2016 – Content from the first departments to switch to Canada.ca start showing up on the new website.
July 2017 – Government cancels the initiative. Moving to Canada.ca is no longer mandatory.
查看原文...
