Ottawa’s Tech Strategy Is So Broken, Even Consultants Are Begging Us to Fix It

Ottawa’s Tech Strategy Is So Broken, Even Consultants Are Begging Us to Fix It

In 2011, the Government of Canada contracted American tech giant IBM to build a new system to manage its payments to civil servants. Beset by bugs, delays, and cost overruns, the new Phoenix pay system was finally unveiled in 2016. And it was a disaster. Civil servants were overpaid, underpaid, or not paid at all. The boondoggle racked up $3.5 billion in additional costs and forced the government to draw up plans to purchase an entirely new pay …