Strategic Objective 2

To enhance ongoing services to Members and sustain the institution

The House Administration continues to implement a series of initiatives to upgrade technology services and facilities, as well as to ensure their security and resiliency, so Members and employees can better serve Canadians.

Advancing the long-term vision and plan to rehabilitate heritage buildings and grounds, and provide additional parliamentary accommodations

The House Administration continues to work in collaboration with Public Works and Government Services Canada to meet the key objectives of the Long-Term Vision and Plan for the Parliamentary Precinct. This plan serves to ensure that Members and staff have safe, efficient facilities that meet the demands of a modern workplace while preserving and enhancing this important national heritage setting for all Canadians.

As part of the major rehabilitation of the West Block, work continues on providing alternative workspaces for the relocation of the West Block parliamentary functions and support services. West Block will be entirely vacated to allow major construction work to begin.

Alternative facilities will also be completed to vacate the Wellington Building to allow the major renovation work to begin on that building.

Masonry repairs and urgent building interventions will continue in the Parliamentary Precinct to ensure the preservation of these heritage assets.

The House Administration continues to play a lead role in overseeing the planning, design and implementation of technology services and information technology and information management infrastructure for the renovation and relocation of parliamentary functions and administrative services into new and renovated facilities.

The Parliamentary Precinct Network was recently upgraded, providing a new standard network platform that will deliver information services to new buildings and facilities.

Providing a flexible technology infrastructure to respond to the needs of Members and the institution

To deal with a steadily evolving environment, the House Administration is building continuously on its information technology security framework. Work is continuing with partners to review the requirements for video-conferencing services for use in parliamentary committees. Other technology based initiatives that will be undertaken include:

initiating a replacement for the security scheduling system, while ensuring alignment with the human resources management system used throughout the House Administration;
developing an on-line purchasing tool that is integrated with the House Administration's financial system to allow Members to purchase supplies on-line and to have their financial information updated simultaneously;
developing and implementing a sustainable telecommunications information management system to manage client requests, ensuring better tracking and more efficient resolution; and
developing a new information system for the management of food production and enhancement of food quality and control.

Ensuring the guardianship of the institution

A partnership of security representatives from the Senate, the House of Commons and the RCMP provides strategic orientation on security issues to ensure collaboration on both day-to-day services and the planning of the security requirements as part of the Long-Term Vision and Plan. As part of its Master Security Plan, an Incident Command System for emergency response will be implemented. A Precinct Access Office will be created as a centralized point of management for access requests for all Precinct buildings and for meeting rooms reserved for parliamentarians.

As part of the ongoing planning for the Business Continuity Program, the business continuity plans for the essential functions of the House of Commons will be refined and tested to ensure that the operations can continue in the event of an emergency situation that requires relocation.