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The federal government could have employed a simple framework for its massive Canada.ca web renewal project, making it much cheaper than the large corporate Adobe contract it signed, according to several sources familiar with the project.

The web renewal initiative, which aims to move all of the government’s disparate department websites into a single Canada.ca domain, has been plagued with budget overruns and delays. Today, fewer that 10 federal departments are in the process of moving to the new website. The project intended to see as many as 90 departments move to Canada.ca by 2017.

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The government awarded Adobe a $1.95-million contract in March 2015 to provide services that would allow it to merge its various departmental websites under the Canada.ca banner. The value of that contract has since ballooned to more than $9.2 million.

But another solution that was passed over, according to insiders, could have resulted in a more cost-effective approach.