Government Operations Committee on March 22nd, 2023

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

My next question is around a comment the minister made when she was responding to another question. She talked about dental care. I was quite happy that PSPC is getting involved in rolling out one of the key signature programs that our government is rolling out.

Unfortunately, the minister is not here and I cannot ask her this question, but I will ask this question of any of the officials: Can you tell us about the role that PSPC is playing in the rollout of the dental care?

[Arianne Reza]

Thank you very much for the question.

As you are aware, there's an interim dental program in place that Health Canada and CRA are managing. We are looking to help Health Canada establish the longer-term health plan, so we're competing it among service providers. It's an open procurement.

I'll leave it at that for the time being. Thank you.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

It's an open procurement, and it's good to see that PSPC is playing an active role in that one.

The minister also talked about cybersecurity and some of the investments that PSPC is making, specifically with CBSA and the Canada no-fly list zone. I have a lot of constituents who are very much interested in that. Could you shed some light on that and unpack it? I believe there's $2 million on that. Can you unpack that for us, please?

[Sony Perron]

Thank you for the question.

We are transferring back from Shared Services Canada the amount of money that we had been provided to support CBSA for processing their transactions on what we call the “mainframe”, which is our supercomputer to manage transactions for CBSA.

Because this program cost less this year, we are sending the money back to CBSA, which is planning to automate the access to this no-fly list. This will make it easier for the workers at CBSA—and also for the passengers and the airline companies—to have access to timely information. For the details of how this is going to work, you would have to ask these questions of officials or the minister responsible for the CBSA, but this is showing that, if we are saving money on infrastructure and technology on one side, we are helping the departments to advance other pieces of the agenda. This is the way to better serve Canadians in the long run.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

I know that I have 30 seconds. I'll yield it back to the chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you, sir.

We have Ms. Vignola for two and a half minutes, please.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to talk about French, which is one of my favourite topics.

With respect to the contracts with the McKinsey firm, I had a surprise when I read appendix A of the statement of work. In language provision 10 in the contracts, it says that the primary working language is English, with a possibility of English and French. That is fine with me and I have no issue with that.

However, I was surprised by the fact that the deliverables had to be in English only, and not just for one contract, but for several contracts that were read. It also says that the in-person presentation would be in English, or French, if necessary. So I wonder if Canada is really a bilingual country.

Does anyone, anywhere, realize what happens when only one language is required of a company? In this case, it's English, but it could be French in a bilingual country. Now, when we require a company to give its deliverables in English only, we disadvantage all the French-speaking companies that have to pay extra to have the translation done, whether by hiring bilingual people, sometimes paying them more, or by hiring subcontractors.

Do we realize that we are putting our francophone businesses at a disadvantage, but also francophone public servants, who must continually speak in a language that is not the one they grew up with and in which they would certainly be more comfortable?

[Arianne Reza]

Thank you for your question.

I'll answer it in two or three points.

First of all, usually when we buy a service or a product, we always make sure that that service or product is received in both official languages, if it's something like software. If it's a report, the vendor can usually choose the language if there's not a specific request for both languages.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

The McKinsey firm, which has an international presence and a presence in France, is told that there is no problem with them using only English, regardless of whether the staff member is French or English speaking.

That is written in black and white.

Why is the Official Languages Act not respected by requiring all businesses, French or English, to provide documents in both languages?

[Arianne Reza]

Thank you—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm afraid, Ms. Reza, that is our time, but Mrs. Vignola will have one final round of two and half minutes to follow up.

We have Mr. Johns for two and half minutes, please.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Today was interesting in the House of Commons. We heard the Prime Minister acknowledge that the government is looking at selling some of the federal buildings, potentially for housing. We know that in the 1970s and 1980s we had a strong co-op housing program. Before the Liberals pulled out of it in 1992, we were developing about 25,000 units a year. Approximately 10% of housing in Canada was non-market housing. I think we're at 3% now. Europe is around 30%.

This is what it looks like when you have 3% non-market housing. You have homelessness. You have housing shortages.

Given the recent Desjardins announcement, just to meet the immigration levels, never mind the housing shortage for Canadians right now, we have to increase housing starts by 50% next year.

I guess my question to you is this: When you're looking at selling properties, are you looking at making sure there are covenants that it's non-market housing? For-market housing has never solved a housing crisis anywhere in the world. Are you looking at safeguards and policies to ensure that, if those buildings are converted to housing, they're going to be staying in the hands of Canadians and used for affordable housing?

[Arianne Reza]

Thank you very much for the question.

I think we're just at the beginning of this journey. These types of consultations are really key. We're looking at indigenous consultations, at social housing and at divestiture, working federally with Canada Lands, to see what the different elements are across Canada and how we can optimize that. I think I can take that back in terms of what the next steps would be.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Thank you.

I hope that the government will obviously prioritize indigenous housing and working with indigenous communities where those federal lands are.

I asked this question around PPE the other day to the President of the Treasury Board. We had many of these small and medium-sized businesses step up and provide PPE during the pandemic. Then they got pushed out by foreign PPE that was brought in and much cheaper. Really what we've done is depleted our capacity in the future. They're not likely going to step up like they did this time.

I know the policy is to buy Canadian-made, but you're still buying from these big corporations. That's not going to help us in a future situation like this.

Are you looking at changing direction? How are you going to change the process so that small PPE manufacturers here in Canada are bidding—and successfully bidding—on PPE? What are you doing to ensure that?

[Arianne Reza]

Thank you very much.

I think the question is actually broader than PPE. I think the minister alluded to the work that we do with Procurement Assistance Canada in terms of trying to bring suppliers of all sizes—SMEs, large-scale—into the procurement—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you. We are out of time.

Again, Mr. Johns, you'll have one last round.

Mr. Barrett, you have five minutes, please.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to follow up with some more questions.

With respect to the logistics vehicles that I was asking about previously, you indicated that there was not a replacement plan under way. Is that correct? Was that your indication?

[Simon Page]

On a one-on-one basis, we don't have a pure replacement project for them.

We do have a project called logistics vehicle modernization. It's not exactly the same acronym. That project is with us at the moment. It's in implementation at the Department of National Defence. We have two qualified suppliers. We're in the bid evaluation process at this time, and we're going through testing with the two qualified suppliers.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

That's a different and better answer to the same question. I like that one better. Thank you very much.

With respect to the Leopard 2 tanks that have been sent to Ukraine, is there a one-for-one replacement—we can use a common language here—for those items? What is the timeline for their replacements to be in garrison and operational in Canada?

[Simon Page]

We are in discussions right now with DND for a replacement project for the Leopard tanks. We don't have an exact timeline to share at the moment.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Are you talking about replacing the technology or one-for-one replacement?

[Simon Page]

The requirement will come from DND. We are in discussions in this regard.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

In the intervening period, there's a capability gap that would exist because the equipment is gone, and there's no interim....

I'll dispense with my question about the capability gap. There is no interim replacement, and there is no projected date for a replacement to be in garrison. Is that correct?

[Simon Page]

We don't have an exact, projected date. That doesn't mean that there's not a plan to have a replacement in place. However, right now I cannot give you a specific date. We are not at that stage yet.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

With respect to my questions on portable anti-tank missiles and air defence systems, the urgent operational requirements that have been identified.... What's the timeline for those that have been designated as urgent to be in garrison and operational for our Canadian Armed Forces members?