Thank you.
With regard to the platform for employee travel, I believe it is important that we have an electronic tool available to the largest possible number of government employees. Obviously, the majority of them do not travel. However, it would be useful if these who are called upon to travel have a tool that would enable them to make airline ticket reservations, if they travel by plane, reservations for an automobile, if they are driving, or reserve a hotel room, using an easily accessible system. The system should also enable them to be reimbursed quickly and efficiently, without having to fill out all sorts of forms that must be submitted to the supervisor. In my opinion, the time it takes for people to be reimbursed, in some cases, is not reasonable. It is the paperwork involved, especially, that bothers me.
As for the travel expenses, I believe I spoke of it earlier to this committee. If not, I will talk about it now. It seems to me that we should insist that employees use the government American Express credit card. We negotiated an agreement with this company further to a call for bids. I find it regrettable that employees reserve vehicles and take out insurance using their own credit cards, when the insurance is already included in the agreement we have with American Express. We’re not talking about billions of dollars!
I’d like to get back to the point Ms. Nash raised a bit earlier. Nineteen thousand dollars, that’s a lot of money. One hundred ninety dollars, that’s a lot of money. Employees are not using government credit cards for all sorts of reasons, and it’s unacceptable. We will have to find a way of ensuring that these men and women do it because, in the end, they are travelling at taxpayers’ expense.
With regard to the leak in the Globe and Mail, you will understand that I have no intention of commenting on a leak from a report that will be made public at the end of the month. It will be my pleasure to come back and talk to you about it, once the report—