Contracting out of IT Work at DND

March 24, 2021

The Honourable Harjit Sajjan
Minister of National Defence 101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa ON K1A 0K2
By email: DND_MND@forces.gc.ca

Dear Minister Sajjan,

I am writing on behalf of the thousands of Department of National Defence (DND) Information Technology specialists represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) regarding the contracting out of the work performed by the members of our Computer Systems (CS) Group.

Our representatives have prepared the attached report, “Contracting Out of IT Work at the Department of National Defence”, an analysis of the policy grievances submitted against DND between January 2018 and March 2020 for outsourcing of government work that could have been done internally.

The data within demonstrates how the Department is not following Article 30 of the CS Collective Agreement, which stipulates that the employer must make a reasonable effort to use existing employees or hire new full-time or term employees as needed before contracting out work to private companies or consultants.

This report demonstrates that DND is the second worst Canadian government department with regards to adherence to Article 30 of the Computer Systems Group Collective Agreement. The length of time and the sheer number of contractors in a position to do work that is established as permanent is staggering. In addition, our research shows a high amount of contracted-out work involving the security of IT systems and the data that they house. This is work that should undoubtedly be performed by public service professionals.

This is an issue of critical importance not only to our members and their public service colleagues, but to the Canadians they serve on a daily basis. Outsourcing results in higher costs, lower quality services, less transparency, less accountability and the loss of institutional knowledge and skills.

I thank you for your immediate attention to this matter and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,