Digital Government Minister Joyce Murray has been tasked with leading work on a “next generation human resources and pay system” to replace the problematic Phoenix program that has caused headaches for public servants since its introduction in 2016.

She’s also been tapped to lead the “renewal” of Shared Services Canada so that it is “properly resourced and aligned to deliver common IT infrastructure that is reliable and secure.” Shared Services is the federal agency responsible for consolidated IT services that has drawn the ire of critics both inside and outside government for its slow progress in completing major projects.

Murray was tasked with the responsibilities, as well as others, in her new mandate letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, publicly released on Friday.

READ MORE: Murray handed responsibility for Shared Services Canada

Of course, the rocky rollout of the Phoenix pay system has seen thousands of pubic servants miss payments, or be overpaid or underpaid, or deal with other payment related issues. With the backlog of issues still to this day in the thousands, the Trudeau government committed near the end of its last mandate to replace Phoenix.

As part of her duties, Murray has also been asked to “lead work across government to transition to a more digital government in order to improve citizen service” and oversee the chief information officer and the Canadian Digital Service as they “work with departments to develop solutions that will benefit Canadians and enhance the capacity to use modern tools and methodologies across government.”

And Murray has been tasked with leading the “work to analyze and improve the delivery of information technology within government,” including identifying “all core and at-risk IT systems and platforms.”

As iPolitics reported last month, Murray replaced the public services and procurement minister as the responsible minister for Shared Services.

This past March, Murray was named president of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government after Jane Philpott resigned from the role amid the SNC-Lavalin scandal. In last month’s cabinet shuffle, she retained the digital government portfolio but was replaced as president of the Treasury Board by Jean-Yves Duclos.

Debi Daviau told iPolitics in November that she believed that developing the replacement to the troubled Phoenix pay system would eventually “find its way under Shared Services” (or Shared Services would at least have a role in it), as it was a task that fell under Treasury Board.

Murray’s office still falls under the Treasury Board Secretariat.

In her retooled ministerial posting, Murray has also been tasked with working with the families, children and social development minister and national revenue minister to “implement a voluntary, real-time e-payroll system with an initial focus on small businesses.”

Her other priorities outlined in the mandate letter include:

Lead work to create a centre of expertise that brings together the necessary skills to effectively implement major transformation projects across government, including technical, procurement and legal expertise.

Support the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry in continuing work on the ethical use of data and digital tools like artificial intelligence for better government.

With the support of the President of the Treasury Board and the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, accelerate progress on a new Government of Canada service strategy that aims to create a single online window for all government services with new performance standards.

Support the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development in expanding and improving the services provided by Service Canada.

Support the Minister of National Revenue on additional steps required to meaningfully improve the satisfaction of Canadians with the quality, timeliness and accuracy of services they receive from the Canada Revenue Agency.

Support the Minister of Public Services and Procurement in eliminating the backlog of outstanding pay issues for public servants as a result of the Phoenix Pay System.

Lead work on the Next Generation Human Resources and Pay System to replace the Phoenix Pay System and support the President of the Treasury Board as he actively engages Canada’s major public sector unions.

Fully implement lessons learned from previous information technology project challenges and failures, particularly around sunk costs and major multi-year contracts. Act transparently by sharing identified successes and difficulties within government, with the aim of constantly improving the delivery of projects large and small.

Encourage the use and development of open source products and open data, allowing for experimentation within existing policy directives and building an inventory of validated and secure applications that can be used by government to share knowledge and expertise to support innovation.

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