Evidence of meeting #7 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was services.
A video is available from Parliament.
3:50 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
Thank you for that answer.
Mr. Blanchette, you have five minutes.
3:50 p.m.
NDP
Denis Blanchette NDP Louis-Hébert, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here. We are always pleased to see you in committee.
My first question concerns the Voltigeurs de Québec Armoury. You are requesting $3.4 million this year. A $104-million project was announced, including $11 million for studies and public consultations.
You no doubt have a schedule since you are requesting funding. I would like to know what that figure corresponds to and what we can subsequently expect.
3:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Thank you for your question.
The amount requested in the supplementary estimates (B) is really for the project definition stage. We are currently discussing the matter with the various tenant departments, the City of Québec and the National Battlefields Commission, and we are completing exploratory analyses of the lands and various buildings. We are requesting this funding in order to complete that work.
3:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I am getting to that. Our objective is to be able to issue the construction contracts and start work in early 2015 for occupancy in 2017.
3:55 p.m.
NDP
Denis Blanchette NDP Louis-Hébert, QC
That is excellent. Thank you very much.
My colleague spoke a little earlier about the consolidation project in Miramichi. We know it is an interdepartmental consolidation. If my memory serves me, we know you are using the PeopleSoft human capital management system.
We can see that this will virtually triple between 2010-2011 and 2014-2015. How does that compare to current costs?
3:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The amounts appearing in the estimates and what you have in the report on plans and priorities show the curve of the increase in expenditures as a result of the pay system modernization project and so that we can finish consolidating the people, the human resources, or rather the people who will be working and providing pay services. We are consolidating the pay officers.
The expenditure curve will subsequently decline and stabilize because these are expenditures that are incurred to upgrade the system, to invest in it, to finalize and implement it and to finish hiring and training the people to provide the services. The curve will therefore decline once that is finished.
3:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I believe it will be in 2015-2016. The savings will begin in 2016-2017. Savings are also attached to this and are in the order of $78 million.
3:55 p.m.
NDP
Denis Blanchette NDP Louis-Hébert, QC
All right.
We also see that there are $31.5 million for dams, bridges and crossings. What exactly are you doing with that? Perhaps you could quickly give me an idea of the infrastructure you own.
3:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We have 19 assets of all kinds. They include wharves, bridges, dams and even a section of the Alaska highway. What can I say? It is a diversified portfolio.
A portion of the amounts requested in the supplementary estimates will be allocated to Chaudière Crossing, the Burlington Lift Bridge, Chaudière Falls Dam and Des Allumettes Bridge.
3:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I think it is for the dam or the crossing.
3:55 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Real Property Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes.
3:55 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It is not for the bridge as such.
3:55 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Real Property Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We call the Chaudière bridge Chaudière Crossing. This work is mainly related to health and safety. We want to ensure we restore the crossing to a green state, based on the red-yellow-green system. We want to make that is done by the end of 2014.
3:55 p.m.
NDP
3:55 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Real Property Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I do not have all the details on the health and safety issues, but it is mainly a matter of shoring up components. From time to time, more visual issues may be involved, but there are always components that have to be reinforced to ensure that all health and safety aspects are covered. This covers all bridge maintenance activities. Checks are done. When we find unsound components, we make sure they are repaired before they become dangerous.
3:55 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
Thank you, Mr. Blanchette.
Mr. Cannan, you have the floor. You have five minutes.
November 28th, 2013 / 4 p.m.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure having you as witnesses again. We appreciate Public Works, and over the last couple of years it has taken some positive steps and directions.
I want to ask a few questions regarding the departmental performance report in the Auditor General's report this week, specifically around the shipbuilding procurement strategy.
I was in Halifax for the last couple of days with our international trade committee, talking about the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, CETA, with the European Union and meeting with Atlantic stakeholders and business organizations. We toured a Halifax port yesterday, and people are ecstatic about the $115 billion megaproject. I had a tour of the Irving shipyards, and there are great opportunities for Atlantic Canada, and all Canadians.
The Auditor General mentioned the national shipbuilding procurement strategy, and said that the shipyard selection process was “a successful and efficient process independent of political influence, consistent with government regulations and policies, and carried out in an open and transparent manner”. Through the NSPS, the government is indeed managing the acquisition of military ships in a “timely”, “affordable”, “efficient”, and “transparent” manner that will support the shipbuilding industry for years to come.
Whomever is comfortable in answering, could you maybe comment on the Auditor General's findings with respect to the shipbuilding procurement strategy and its oversight mechanism, and specifically his findings with respect to whether the NSPS is being well managed?
4 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The quotes you read were the ones that I was going to use. It is highly unusual for an Auditor General's report to have so many positive elements and so many positive quotes. We were quite happy, if anybody could be happy with an Auditor General's report.
For us, it was an excellent report card. It demonstrated the results of what I mentioned earlier in my opening remarks, our approach to smart procurement. It demonstrated that it is worth taking the time and effort to engage early and frequently with industry, to be transparent about the iterations, the approach, and the requirements that we have. More importantly, it's also listening to what industry has to say and for us to make the adjustments necessary to the procurement processes as we go forward.
The other element that was absolutely essential was expertise—third-party experts we retained in order to give us advice all the way through. That was both in terms of what a target state for the shipyard should be and what the fairness monitor we hired should give us in terms of the assurance around the process and for the industry, that we were following all of the process elements as we should and that we took into account industry's comment.
We also had a very strong and robust governance structure, which continues to this day. It is, at the top, a committee of deputy ministers, which I chair, and has quite an extensive set of committees to support all of the elements of the decision-making. We have a very robust escalation mechanism, so that no issue turns around and spins for any length of time. Decisions are made. Also, we report regularly to ministers about the work and the progress we make. The shipyards found the process quite comprehensive, and they, too, found the selection process to be as transparent and as effective as possible.
We now have issued contracts to the two selected shipyards. We continue our ongoing engagement, both with industry, for the suppliers to the shipyards, and with the shipyards, as we progress on each one of the projects that is being undertaken for the construction of the ships.
4 p.m.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Thank you.
I'm glad you appreciated those comments and the Auditor General's quotes. I thought they were excellent.
Somebody else who made an excellent quote is my honourable colleague across the way, Mr. Pat Martin, when he commented:
You can tell by the enthusiasm from the committee members that we're all as excited about this as a lot of Canadians are, and I think credit goes to all of the actors. Perhaps it is a new standard in how we make major procurements.
Do you think there are any lessons we have learned from shipbuilding strategic procurement, that is, taking this strategy's model and applying it to future procurements? It's something the government hasn't necessarily had top marks on in the past, as far as past procurement.
4 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Deputy Receiver General for Canada, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We are in fact applying the model to quite a range of procurements. I would say that's not just the complex procurements, which are often on the military side, but also in terms of very complex procurements that may not have the same range or dollar value.
For example, right now with the fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft, we've had extensive, and continue to have extensive, engagement with industry. In fact, we had a letter of interest that was issued to the companies on the evaluation process. We now follow that process and that approach very consistently and aggressively because it has demonstrated and proven its worth in terms of the management of processes of procurements.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
I'm proud to say that my constituent Kelowna Flightcraft is maintaining the search and rescue aircraft and giving them much longer lifespans. So we can procure that in the future.