Shared Services Canada appears to be in trouble again – this time, it’s with the Mounties.
As if a recent Auditor General’s report on its shortcomings were not enough, a document from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is indicating the police services operations, court cases, as well as the lives of its frontline officers in jeopardy due to the turnover of the Mounties’ IT operations to the SCC.
Court cases, as well as the lives of frontline officers, have been jeopardized by placing the information technology operations of the RCMP under the SSC, according to an internal report of the national police service.
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The documents, obtained by the CBC, also included letters indicating that RCMP Commissioner Bob Polson had met with Liseanne Forand, SSC president in Sept. 2015. Where the commissioner brought attention to several occasion when failures by the SSC impacted police operations.
These included:
- While a lone terrorist broke into Parliament Hill on Oct. 22, 2014, the SSC increased bandwidth to receive evidence gathered by the public by shutting down the Disaster Recovery site. The SSC did this without consulting the RCMP or understanding the risks involved
- Back in Jan. 2015, the RCMP had alerted the SSC that Mission B.C.’s phone system was in need of replacement. Public safety was at risk because the phone service is unstable and affecting 911 calls and dispatches. There has been no progress from SSC to date
- As far back as Nov. 2012, the SCC had been advised that equipment at the Dorchester, Que. datacentre have reached their end of life. SSC did not replace the equipment. On Sept. 18, 2014, a server in the facility failed
- The RCMP also informed the SSC about its concerns over security protection of networks and servers
The documents also indicated that the SSC was in arrears of its bills from Northwestel, the Internet and phone service provider for the RCMP in the Northern B.C.
