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When the Citizen first reported an almost eight-month delay in the project in June 2014, Shared Services Canada still believed that it would finish the single email project by the end of 2015.

Revised plans outlined in a Dec. 5, 2014, presentation, show 33 departments were scheduled to be under the Canada.ca platform by the end of the calendar year, with nine more departments there by the end of March 2016, including the RCMP, Foreign Affairs, the Department of Justice and the Privy Council Office. Shared Services Canada provided the presentation to the Citizen.

Delays have been the result of multiple issues, some of which were first identified almost one year ago. Those issues are outlined in internal documents obtained by the Citizen under the access to information law, including an overly aggressive timeline and concerns that Bell seemed unable to design a system that would meet the government’s demanding needs.

The documents also lay out the belief from one department that Shared Services Canada hid details of the project’s problems from the departments it serves, an allegation Shared Services Canada strongly denies.

In April, Shared Services Canada raised concerns about an “Internet issue” in a letter to Bell, a move that prompted a six-page response, all of which has been redacted, and meetings to sort out “external network connectivity” issues. Shared Services Canada said it wanted security issues sorted out, but it didn’t say how those issues were resolved.