Government Operations Committee on March 14th, 2012

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

It's not a question of technology. It's about being specific enough to provide accurate information to Parliament.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

John, that's your five minutes exactly.

If there are going to be exchanges like that, with people interrupting, I'm going to ask you to direct your comments through the chair in the future.

Ron Cannan, you have five minutes.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, and your colleagues for being here today.

I have a couple of really significant issues, as a member of the international trade committee. I know that within the program expenditures there is reference to $3.3 million for the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council. Could you enlighten the committee on exactly what the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council is going to be using this funding for?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I'll defer a little bit to officials. But for the benefit of the committee, let me just indicate that certainly I've been briefed regularly on the Regulatory Cooperation Council and where they're at. I can indicate to this body that certainly it is active. They are in the process of drilling down from the announcement made by Prime Minister Harper and President Obama. They are working on a work plan to identify specific areas they can move on to collaborate to reduce red tape that doesn't have a health and safety aspect to it, which we would be concerned about, but that can help us keep our border as thin as possible. So it is an active committee. It's actually working now, perhaps quietly. But sometimes the best work done is more of the quiet variety.

Michelle, you might want to add to that.

[Michelle d'Auray]

Thank you, Minister.

The Regulatory Cooperation Council is engaged actively with about 20 departments and agencies and their counterparts in the United States. The funds are used to support the secretariat and the development of the action plan. And now the plans are actually going to be brought forward and discussed with the key industries or stakeholders on the components that need to be moved forward. It is time limited, because they have to deliver on the action plan. Those commitments are made as well with their U.S. counterparts. So there are a number of initiatives and activities under way across the border that are engaging business people from both countries.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Excellent. I think the sooner we can implement these regulatory reviews the better.

I was in Portland with Mr. Kennedy, who was Canada's representative working with President Obama's administration. At the conference I was at they likened the perimeter to a set of suspenders and the 49th to a belt. We're thinning out the belt and thickening the suspenders to try to increase the flow of goods and services. So it's very important for our economy.

One other area of significance is trying to understand the whole parliamentary budget review process. My colleague, Mike Wallace, and I both come from a background in local government. We've been trying, and Mike's been doing a fantastic job, to bring forward some ideas. And it's been really encouraging, as all of us are working together as a committee to look at the estimates cycle and the budget cycle.

In your letter, Mr. Minister, you referred to the main estimates and the timing of the budget. To improve the system, would you see as a possibility implementing the budget later in the year, as was recommended by some who have come to the committee?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Let me say that I'm really interested in how we time the presenting of the main estimates to this committee and therefore to Parliament, and how we coordinate that with the budget timing. I think we're all dancing around the same thing, but I'll just say it and put it on the record. It's all out of whack right now. That's the way I look at it.

If it makes you feel better—I know you're frustrated with it—it's frustrating for us too, because we're trying to deliver timely and accurate information and we've got the cart before the horse on some of this. So by the Standing Orders and by other rules that I cannot in any way resile from, here I was a few days ago presenting the main estimates, three weeks before the budget. The main estimates are a valuable tool for having the baseline, but as we're all saying, it's going to be changed by the budget in some manner or another. I think it is important for us that we get this looked at.

The supply cycle itself is in legislation. It's not just the Standing Orders, as Michelle reminded me, but it does have parliamentary procedure in it as well.

So it's a combination of things that I'm really looking forward to you looking at, and I guess I'm expressing my interest in presenting to our fellow parliamentarians and to the government some solutions. I think that would be very useful.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Thank you, Ron. That concludes your five minutes.

Minister, I appreciate your remark. “Out of whack” might be the root word for wacky, and we do find the whole process almost incomprehensible, some of us.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I feel your pain.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

We're going to begin a second round, if you're still with us, Minister, for a while longer. We appreciate that.

First in line for the second round is Denis Blanchette, for five minutes.

[Denis Blanchette, NDP, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Minister, thank you for being with us today.

My first question has to do with your projected spending reductions. In the documentation here, it says that Treasury Board estimates a reduction of $192 million, 40% of which corresponds to amounts that are being transferred elsewhere.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Yes, but—

[Denis Blanchette, NDP, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Allow me to finish, and you will see where I am going with this.

That is also the case for other departments. Take Shared Services Canada for example. As someone who looks at total spending, you are fully aware, as am I, that transferred funds do not represent reductions, just money that has been moved around.

I would like to hear your view on the upcoming budget cuts. Furthermore, why is the process not further along at this stage in the game?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Once again, I must say that the 2012 budget will be tabled in a few days.

[Denis Blanchette, NDP, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Notwithstanding that.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Perhaps we can give another answer to that specific question.

[Michelle d'Auray]

Thank you, minister.

I appreciate the member's question.

The Treasury Board Secretariat's budget is indeed undergoing a net reduction of $192 million. I believe that is the figure you are referring to. Vote 1, which represents the department's operating expenditures, entails a net reduction of $11.3 million, most of which stems from the strategic review applicable to the department. Obviously, a few other votes also represent a reduction, such as a $105-million decrease under vote 20.

So it isn't all just transfers.

[Denis Blanchette, NDP, Louis-Hébert, QC]

I understand all that; there are reductions and increases scattered throughout. Had those transfers not been made, however, the budget would have gone up, not down. What I am trying to figure out is the point of this entire exercise if a large chunk of the funding is simply being transferred at the end of the day.

In any case, I want to switch gears and talk about—

[Michelle d'Auray]

I want to clarify that there will be a net reduction.

[Denis Blanchette, NDP, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Yes, but not that much.

You cut second-language instructors at the Canada School of Public Service. You said that the private sector would do a better job performing that function. In the school's 2010-2011 Report on Plans and Priorities, it had to review its language services.

Did you base your decision on the review done by the school?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

A decision was made in 2006 to make those changes. As the President of the Treasury Board, I am the one who implements that decision. The decision was made six years ago.

[Denis Blanchette, NDP, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Are you saying that you implemented a decision that was made in 2006?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

The decision—

[Denis Blanchette, NDP, Louis-Hébert, QC]

I am talking about the decision that was made in 2006.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

It was in 2006, yes.