MPI lowers speed limit on tech upgrade with ‘IT roadmap’ following Project Nova debacle

Manitoba Public Insurance is now using an “IT road map” and phasing in new technology and systems after pulling the plug last year on its failed $164-million overhaul known as Project Nova, its annual report says.

The Crown corporation’s 2025-26 just-released annual report says lessons learned from Project Nova helped shape its “new path forward for modernization,” calling it an “IT road map” allowing systems to be changed in “smaller, lower-risk increments.”

Chief executive officer Satvir Jatana said in the report that the public auto insurer is in “a favourable position” — reporting $55.6 million in net income after losses of $19.7 million in 2024-25 and $130 million the previous fiscal year. Jatana said income would have surpassed $100 million if not for writeoffs related to the closure of Project Nova, which was intended to modernize outdated business and information technology systems, with a projected cost that climbed from $85 million in 2019 to an estimated $435 million in March of 2025, before it was cancelled.

Jatana has stated previously that Project Nova was doomed from the start with ineffective governance, major changes in MPI leadership, a global pandemic and a labour dispute that led to delays and cost overruns with many starts and stops to the project.

In May 2023, the MPI board fired CEO Eric Herbelin following an internal investigation into his work conduct. The Swiss national with a private insurance background was hired during the pandemic in 2021 while MPI was pursuing the largest technology modernization in its history. Last year, the province’s auditor general announced it was conducting an audit of the failed project.

A fall update by Tyson Shtykalo reported only that progress was being made on the deep dive into Project Nova. The Auditor General Act gives the office the same power to subpoena witnesses as a commissioner during a public inquiry. On Monday, when asked if witnesses — including Herbelin — have been subpoenaed, Shtykalo’s office said it won’t be releasing information on the scope or the approach of the audit while it is underway.

The public auto insurer is modernizing MPI’s highest-risk systems by phasing in “practical platforms that deliver the most value to customers,” the annual report said. Its new pathway for updated IT will improve services for customers, strengthen cybersecurity and system reliability while improving how systems work together. It will be designed for “stable, day-to-day operations” of the services Manitobans rely on, including insurance, driver licensing and vehicle registration.

MPI did not respond to a request for comment seeking details about the IT road map.

A University of Winnipeg political science professor who studies Crown corporations said MPI’s new modernization plan — “to go slower bit by bit, inch by inch” — makes sense.

“Every single part of the company is computerized, and to get them all to line up and to work together is really hard, and you can’t shut them down,” Malcolm Bird said.

“Upgrading IT systems is very, very, very difficult — both from a technical standpoint, from an organizational standpoint and from a political standpoint. This is very common in any organization to face challenges upgrading tech stuff in the public sector. These problems occur in the private sector, as well, but they’re not as transparent and as open as public-sector organizations are. That’s why we hear a lot about public-sector problems in this area.

“Upgrading IT systems is very, very, very difficult, both from a technical standpoint, from an organizational standpoint and from a political standpoint.”

“I have a lot of empathy and sympathy for the folks that are charged with doing this.”

Crown corporations are subject to political interference that can undermine and influence business decisions, he said. The Public Utilities Board oversees rate-setting at MPI. The board approved a 5.7 per cent increase for 2025-26.

The Progressive Conservative critic for MPI said the NDP has been in government since 2023 and should have ensured that modernization MPI’s IT systems was well underway by now.

“Manitobans have expectations of their Crown corporations and the ministers who are responsible for their operations,” Trevor King (Lakeside) said in a prepared statement.

“The minister (Matt Wiebe) has been in office for three years and still has no plan to modernize services for Manitobans.”

MPI has a mandate to ensure affordable and stable rates but there’s no indication of how it intends to do so, King said.

“Storms this summer have accounted for unprecedented claims, and there is no indication (Wiebe) has a plan to address the massive financial liability,” he said.

In a statement, Wiebe, the minister responsible for MPI, said “under the PCs’ watch, Nova had massive cost overruns with far too little to show in the way of technological upgrades. Our government is getting MPI back on track.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca