Province plans to modernize clunky website

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This article was published 15/02/2023 (981 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s presence on the world wide web is set for an overhaul.

The provincial government plans to upgrade its website, which has “a very fragmented department-based digital presence that does not provide a consistent, quality user experience.”

A request for proposals issued last month is seeking a company to “revitalize” the government’s domain, manitoba.ca, to become user-centred and service-focused.

The tender is the first step to determine how much work is needed to bring the website up to date and how much it will cost.

“The goal would be to improve the experience and develop a simple-to-navigate platform that provides Manitobans the information they want and need,” a government spokesperson said in a statement.

The website has several thousand pages that are out of date or redundant, the government said. It is also maintained using multiple content management and governance systems that are primarily department-based.

“This review will look at what needs to be updated, to what extent things are working well, and what areas may need improvement and aims to develop a singular tool that is simple to navigate and provides citizens with timely and relevant content that meets current accessibility standards,” the spokesperson said.

The tender says the province has conducted preliminary work to define what content should be available on the website and the preferred technology to support the back-end administration of the domain.

The province wants to hire a company to design and deliver a new website that’s dynamic and accessible with a single management system for all of government.

The province is asking for recommendations on how to best manage the website across various government divisions, departments and subject matter experts, including recommended staffing models.

NDP MLA Jamie Moses said the province’s website has not met Manitobans’ need for some time.

He questioned the need to bring in outside help to update it and raised concerns about the reliance on private, third-party firms to deliver projects at a reasonable cost to taxpayers.

“The need for online services is growing in Manitoba, so why doesn’t the government have capacity for this within the civil service?” the NDP critic for economic development said. “If we’re going to be needing more and more services like this in the future, why not build our own capacity within the civil service, instead of contracting this out.”

Moses pointed to massive cost overruns of Manitoba Public Insurance’s Project Nova as the basis of his concern. The Crown corporation’s plan to move its core business lines online and to offer basic customer services digitally is estimated to cost nearly $290 million.

“We have real questions about how much this will cost us,” Moses said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca