I think what that points out is that there really are some missing skills and capacity in being able to identify the real costs of such a large initiative. The three systems we're talking about here, which are old age security, Canada pension plan and the employment insurance program, have existed for 20 to 60 years. They're old. There is so much complexity from a policy perspective. There's a lot that needs to be factored into what modernizing and improving these systems looks like. There has been some positive in that the government has taken external advice now and they're looking at this, but what's even more concerning is that they don't have a full picture of how much it will cost. Across the public service 7,500 applications have been identified as needing to be modernized. The costs are underestimated at this time.
It's about having a better skill set to be able to estimate it, but then it's also adjusting funding mechanisms to deal with the fact that major IT projects are lengthy. How is the funding going to be adaptable in order to deal with the increasing costs that are inevitable as you take time to put something forward?