At a Glance

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat has made little progress in leading the federal government’s work towards developing a national approach for validating a person’s identity digitally to access services from all levels of government and elsewhere in the public and private sectors. The secretariat delayed this work because of a lack of funding to move it forward. However, funding was secured to procure a much-needed component of a national approach—a federal sign-in system that would provide 1 entry point for validating a person’s identity no matter what federal government service they are accessing. The secretariat prioritized working with Employment and Social Development Canada and Shared Services Canada to procure a new system that would replace almost 90 separate sign‑in portals managed by individual federal departments.

A national approach must, however, go beyond a new federal sign-in system and requires several other important components such as collaboration between all levels of government and key partners supported by legislation, regulations, standards, and technology. Some provinces have already begun implementing their own approaches to validating a person’s identity digitally for accessing online services. This means that digital access to services across the country is evolving without a national approach to ensure the security, reliability, and interoperability of systems involved in validating digital identity. A national approach is important to ensure seamless and secure access to online services in the public and private sectors for Canadians across the country.

As we concluded our audit, it was unclear whether the development of a national approach for validating a person’s identity digitally would proceed and whether the transition to a new federal sign-in system would be funded without presenting an unmanageable financial burden on departments. Our 2023 audit report on modernizing information technology systems found that most departments and agencies do not have sufficient funding to meet their modernization needs. Funding has been secured for procuring a new federal single sign-in system, but the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Employment and Social Development Canada, and Shared Services Canada do not yet know what it will cost for departments to make that transition or how those costs will be funded.