Evidence of meeting #7 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was question.
A recording is available from Parliament.
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Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
At least be considerate of our translators.
Thank you, Mr. McCauley.
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you for showing respect for our translators. I know they appreciate that.
Mr. McCauley, I also appreciate your thoughts. I have put you on pause at this point in time, so you are not losing your time.
Just for everybody, points of order.... Let's stay on track and answer the questions as quickly as we can, please. Thank you.
Mr. McCauley, go ahead.
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Conservative
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Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
It was a collective decision that the officials would look at the situation, given the latest information we received from the court's decision.
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Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Let me ask a follow-up question.
Whose decision was it to delay the release of the departmental results? I have a call letter from Glenn Purves requiring that they be done by October 3, and the follow-up call letter says, after October 3, after they were finished, to delay them.
Whose decision was it to delay the release of the departmental results?
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Assistant Comptroller General, Financial Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
I'll turn to my colleague, Annie, for this question.
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Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Because a new minister was appointed, we wanted to give them time to review their portfolio and be comfortable with the information included. That's why the DRRs were postponed by about two months: to give them time to review and get comfortable with the content.
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Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
[Technical difficulty—Editor] Treasury Board minister to sign off on individual department DRRs, then.
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Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
As you know, DRRs don't have any legislative date. They have to be tabled after the public accounts of Canada.
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Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
I'll answer for you. The answer is no. The departments do it, not the Treasury Board.
I would submit that it was a political decision to interfere with the release of the public documents. It gets back to my question about accountability and transparency, where you have...well, you just told me. The government has interfered with the release of these completed documents. I think the call letter, originally, said to release them before the minister was appointed, so I find it difficult to understand why, before the minister was even appointed, they were not released.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer, in the supplementary report, stated that it's difficult for parliamentarians to vote and do their job when this information is not released. I'm looking for a commitment from the department to be accountable to Parliament, to be transparent to taxpayers and to allow us to do our job, which I would say your department has perhaps interfered with.
I quote the Parliamentary Budget Officer: “I am recommending that Parliament consider legislative amendments to require tabling of the Government's financial statements no later than September 30”.
Do you believe it's possible to have legislation? Is it doable, from your point of view? Can we have these documents mandated to be released by September 30—the public accounts and the DRRs?
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Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
I think it will have to be a collective decision. I cannot speak on behalf of the Auditor General of Canada, who has to audit the public accounts every year, as well as—
5 p.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Thanks.
The departmental plans are coming out soon. The main estimates just came out, so the DP should be out any day now. Will you commit that at least the Treasury Board will not have fake goals set, such as goals to be decided or results to be decided?
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Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Do you want me to answer, Mr. Chair?
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Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
What was included in the PBO report in terms of some of the information not being available.... Some indicators are new, and expected data was not available at the time of reporting. That's an example.
Some programs may have suspended data collection in 2021 because of COVID-19. That's another example.
It is also possible that some indicators are unavailable if they are collected every two years or if they are census-dependent, every five years.
Thank you.
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Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Why would you set a goal, then, for one year if it's a five-year program?
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you.
We will now go to the last questioner.
Mr. Jowhari, you have five minutes.
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Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses.
I'm not sure who in Treasury Board or in the department can answer this question. In the minister's opening remarks, she talked about significant achievements on the road to a more digital government. She highlighted some of the work that was part of budget 2021 and the commitment to digital government.
Can anyone talk about what work is currently being done to implement the most urgent priorities related to digital government and the delivery of digital services to Canadians? Perhaps you could expand on those priorities.
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Assistant Secretary, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
My colleague Paul will take this.
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Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Transformation, Treasury Board Secretariat
Thank you for the question.
With COVID and what we've seen around a push to digital, an incredible amount of work is being done to support both the public service and public servants in terms of moving them to remote work and supporting the infrastructure to allow that to happen, and to look at digital service delivery for Canadians and Canadian businesses.
Work is being done under a number of different areas, including support for the IRCC in terms of the work they're doing on immigration, work around social service and benefits delivery with ESDC and their benefits delivery modernization, and a number of other significant transformations that are under way within government departments, not only to support the infrastructure we have today to deliver services in a way that is consistent to Canadians but also to improve those services leveraging digital.
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Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Can you talk about the top three priorities for digital government in the upcoming year?
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Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Transformation, Treasury Board Secretariat
Certainly there are the ones that I mentioned, which are being most closely watched and have the biggest impact from both a technology perspective and a service delivery perspective. There is the benefits delivery modernization within ESDC. Work is under way, as I mentioned, within IRCC, and there are a number of other areas in terms of the CBSA and the RCMP.
It would be hard to come down to the top three, but I would say the digital government.... The CIO of Canada will actually be publishing a digital ambition in the coming weeks and months that will set out the expectations of the Government of Canada and specifically some of the areas. Digital ID, which you've seen in the minister's mandate, is a critical cornerstone not only to digital government but also to supporting the digital economy across the country. As we continue to evolve our digital footprint as citizens, initiatives like these are going to help not only the government but also the broader communities.
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Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you.
I was hoping to hear about single digital ID, and I'm glad you touched on that.
I believe I have about a minute left. Quickly, on the question of departmental results reports, the minister indicated that we have achieved a score of 63 out of 100, compared with a target of 60. From your perspective, which initiatives and overarching efforts have led to this high score of satisfaction, and how can we continue expanding on that?
5:05 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Transformation, Treasury Board Secretariat
Each department head in those organizations is responsible for their service delivery. We're working with each of the departments to evolve, through their service delivery models, their service delivery mechanisms. We're looking at ways we can leverage enterprise services, so that we're not building systems or services multiple times, but are able to deliver them consistently and coherently across programs.
Again, each department is responsible for its own service delivery targets, and we're working across those organizations to develop those plans and priorities and ensure that the policy framework we have in place enables those service evolutions.