Hon. Rose-May Poirier: Thank you, minister, for being with us today.

Last year, the federal budget included $648 million over seven years to upgrade Service Canada’s information technology system to modernize the delivery of benefits, such as Employment Insurance. At the time, your colleague Minister Qualtrough stated that the IT system needed to be upgraded before major changes to the IT system could take effect. As you know, she’s still consulting on those changes.

As the minister responsible for Service Canada, could you tell us the following: What is the current status of the work to upgrade Service Canada’s IT system to modernize EI delivery, how much of the $648 million over the seven years that was allocated in Budget 2021 for benefit delivery modernization has been expended to date and when is that work scheduled to be completed?