Thank you, sir.
I think probably the most important suggestion I could make, that I think would both incentivize parliamentarians to scrutinize and make the work they do have more meaning, would be to change the control gate: move it away from voting on inputs, operating capital, and grants and contributions to a program activity basis.
I can't imagine what it would be like to be a new parliamentarian and get estimates books and public accounts books and budget books thrown in front of you and be asked to vote on an operation that cuts across a whole department when we have departments that spend billions of dollars. I know, having worked on seven different departments—three central agencies, four line departments—that when people talk about, say, the coast guard....
I worked at Fisheries and Oceans. They get the coast guard. They should vote on the coast guard. They should vote on search and rescue, on icebreaking. Those are real to people on both coasts.
I worked at Agriculture Canada. Farm financial programs—those are real to people. They should vote on farm financial programs.
I worked at HRSDC. They should have separate votes on the grants and contributions in that program, whether it's for training or the elderly or whatever.
So the number one recommendation, sir, is to change the control gate. Make it a program activity-based system, just the way it exists in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and other countries.
I think it would incentivize people. People would understand it. And then when people are looking at how to monitor whether or not they're doing restraint well, they could look at these activities—these are the control gates—and look at performance relative to those control gates. I think it would just reduce the complexity tremendously.
On process, the “deemed” rule to me is just a symptom of failure. It's like people have thrown up their hands and said, “We can't do this. It's useless. Why am I wasting my time?”
To that, in part I think we have to understand...and I don't even know; I need help to understand why people feel that way. We don't feel that way when we do research here; we released a paper yesterday to parliamentarians and Canadians on a costing of Bill C-10.
We need to look at the process and try to incent people more. I think if they could have an impact, if people sitting on a standing committee, when they bring in a deputy or a minister, could say, “You know, we've looked at this program activity, and this seems like a weak program activity. We know we can improve performance”—and I know you're the type of member who likes to ask those kinds of questions—“so I want to come back and see you next year; I want this improved.”
I think we should have reports coming out of every standing committee around those program activities to try to improve them. The deemed rule should just go. I don't think it's even part of the conversation. To me, it's just a symptom of failure.
On support, you have to ask yourself, do you have access to the people and the resources you need? But again, I don't think it means creating a parallel process around Parliament. The public service has to support everybody around Parliament in a different way.
For instance, yesterday we found ourselves providing a financial analysis, a 90-page paper, peer-reviewed by seven people, on one aspect of Bill C-10. Why can't the public service do that? We had two people working on it. Why can't the public service...? Before, when we used to do that work.... You should get access to that.
In terms of standing committees reviewing the reports, I think these reports on plans and priorities and departmental performances are weak. They're communication vehicles. Nobody uses them. I worked in all three central agencies. They don't go to cabinet.