Finance Committee on March 3rd, 2008

[Jean-Yves Laforest, Bloc, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I see. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

We'll now give a few minutes to Mr. Dykstra. He has a couple of questions.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be brief.

I have just a couple of questions. You were fortunate enough to be involved in a couple of announcements, being a border community, in regard to the enhanced drug enforcement and the tools that the government has funded through the last couple of budgets with respect to being able to detect drugs coming over the border, being able to determine the ingredients or the means to actually make the drugs. I wondered, based on the additional investment that you're being granted here, whether you are working together with the Department of Public Safety on these issues. What type of relationship exists to be able to assist them in their work and obviously you in yours?

[Janet DiFrancesco]

The Department of Public Safety is of course the lead on the law enforcement part of the strategy, and we work very closely with not only the department but the RCMP and CSIS in terms of providing them with intelligence for their investigations. Primarily, our relationship would be with the RCMP and with police forces across Canada that will also be involved in the law enforcement effort.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

I have probably just one other question, and this is a little more specific because of the area I come from in Niagara. Have you determined that you're going to pick more specific areas to focus on, or is this more of a general strategy?

[Janet DiFrancesco]

As I indicated, all of our analysis happens here in Ottawa, so we will be adding additional analysts to our team to provide additional intelligence.

In terms of law enforcement and compliance, I think FINTRAC will take some time to assess where the pressure is strongest in terms of the workload that's coming up. Certainly it's possible that we could add additional staff to one of our regional offices, but I think we'll have to assess that going forward.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to the questioners. I don't have any other individuals of the committee on our list, so with that, we want to thank you for coming forward and giving us the information we're looking for with regard to supplementary estimates at this time. So thank you very much.

I see somebody raising a hand.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I want to ask you a question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay.

So thank you very much for coming. I appreciate that very much.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Could I ask you a process question, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Certainly.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

It's about the estimates. I have a variety of questions from the front of the supplementary estimates (B) book, plus the main estimates. I'd like to see an opportunity to talk to Treasury Board people who deal with putting this together. I don't know whether I need an official motion, or if we have an hour for which we're trying to find an additional spot. I don't know what you want me to do with this. As a member of the finance committee, I'd like to talk to the Treasury Board people who are actually in charge of this area.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

I understand we got the main estimates last week, so we can maybe include that in when we deal with those. Would that be fine?

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Do we have a whole meeting for that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Yes. I'm sure we can work something in to be able to accommodate that.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Mr. Chair, the member perhaps could attend some of the operational and estimate meetings and the Treasury Board will be present.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I'll talk to him about that also.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Let's move on now. We'll move into the second half of our agenda.

We have a couple of notices of motion that we want to clear up and deal with and give some direction. First of all, we have a notice of motion by Mr. Turner. Please don't feel compelled, but if you're interested in introducing that motion, Mr. Turner, the floor would be yours to do so.

[Garth Turner, Liberal, Halton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The particular motion that we have before the committee seeks to clarify the strategy of the Department of Finance in awarding contracts. It goes to the question of why so many contracts have been let--a disproportionate number--just below the threshold at which contracts need to be put out for competitive tendering. My constituents have indicated to me that there are a lot of people who have concern about the untendered contract that the Minister of Finance let for the speech that was part of the last economic statement. Certainly we haven't had adequate response in the House as to why this happened. I know the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Finance tried valiantly, but he obviously failed to convince the House that this was because of an administrative procedure that has since been cleaned up. I think we'd like to know what that administrative procedure or failure was, how in fact it has been corrected, how it's not going to be repeated in the future, and why in fact there have been so many contracts let for just under the tendered amount, as well as the one that was let for many times more than the tendered amount.

It's a very salient motion, because we're obviously dealing here with the Minister of Finance, who is entrusted with the integrity of our financial system and who continues to tell us that the economy is in fine shape. But if actions like this on the part of him and his staff go on, I think it raises legitimate questions in the minds of many taxpaying Canadians about whether we're actually running this place with the restraint and prudence that they expect of us.

This motion is one that answers a few of those basic questions. I'd certainly hope for my colleagues to support us on this so we can answer these questions and give Canadians the assurance they're looking for.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you.

The only change I would ask the mover.... The potential on this one is that it has a date of February 25. If we could insert the words “as soon as possible”, would that work?

[Garth Turner, Liberal, Halton, ON]

Indeed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Does everyone hear and understand the motion? Are there any questions on it? I'll open the floor to debate the motion, if you so wish. If not, we'll move.... Seeing none, we'll--

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

May I question why it's before the finance committee?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

You could, as debate on the motion.