Evidence of meeting #47 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was banks.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I have one short question, and another one that is somewhat more complicated.
First of all, I assume that there are employees, Minister, who look after maintenance in these buildings. What will happen to them? Will they go to the private sector as well?
Minister of Public Works and Government Services
That depends. I do not know if the maintenance work has already been entrusted to a third party for the nine buildings that are part of this bid. I do know, however, that we have already done that for some buildings.
Therefore, the contract—
Minister of Public Works and Government Services
Yes. So the contract will follow the building.
However, if you are asking if we have already awarded a contract to someone for each of the nine buildings, Mr. McGrath could perhaps give you the details.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
But the question must be asked, Minister, because in the end, you are also responsible for your department's employees.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
So I am wondering what will happen to those people. Will they lose their jobs?
Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Real Property Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Madam Chair, eight of the nine buildings in question are already managed by our third-party management company, ProFac, so there's no impact. There's one building with PWGSC employees in it, who are just being reassigned to other assets, so there's absolutely no job loss associated with the potential sale of these assets.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
I want to congratulate the people accompanying you. I suppose that they are the ones who produced this document? I assume the answer is yes, Mr. Marshall? Mr. Hawkes, is that your answer too? I see that it contains real strategic planning, which I have been calling for since I came to this committee. The document I received from the Treasury Board Secretariat is unclear and evasive. In your document, I see real planning, which means that I can more or less look at the main objectives, break them down somewhat and see what direction you are going in. That is much to your credit, but your planning lacks some measurable milestones over time, and I want to know why. As you know, when we receive a document like the one from Treasury Board, that is unclear, people and parliamentarians, who do not know much about this, have no idea where you are going. If we want to be in a position to follow you and to do our work as parliamentarians on behalf of the people and ask you good questions, we must receive strategic planning that will at least enable us to follow the action that you are taking.
First of all, why doesn't the document contain any measurable milestones? While you are at it, tell me how these two documents, both of which come from the federal government, can be so different.
Bloc
Minister of Public Works and Government Services
Well, you would need to clarify what you mean by measurable milestones. In what way? Are you talking about savings in terms of procurement, for example? In that regard, we answered the question earlier. The Minister of Finance, in his Budget 2007, clearly indicated that he wants to save $2.7 billion over five years. We have a responsibility as part of that $2.7 billion objective. We can give you a figure, in other words the savings that we will have to achieve as part of that exercise.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
When I talk about measurable milestones, it could be in terms of transforming procurement, or in terms of real estate. It could be milestones in terms of timeframes, in terms of very precise objectives to be met. We do not necessarily have that information. As parliamentarians, it is very difficult for us to ask you questions, because nothing is clear. I think Mr. Marshall understands exactly what I am saying.
Minister of Public Works and Government Services
In my opinion, with all due respect, the amount of savings to be achieved, and not those that have already been achieved, constitute an important milestone.
Bloc
Minister of Public Works and Government Services
Achieving savings requires modifying procedures.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Minister, I just told you what I would have liked to have seen: milestones in terms of the timeframe, in terms of very specific aspects. Yes, it is true that there is talk about savings, but when are you going to achieve them? How much time are you going to give yourselves to achieve them?
Minister of Public Works and Government Services
That information is in the budget, Ms. Bourgeois.
Bloc
Diane Bourgeois Bloc Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Perhaps Mr. Marshall could respond, because he knows what I am getting at.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Madame, we will do our best to be more specific. One of the challenges we have is that we are also very dependent on many other parties for approvals and so forth, so there's a tendency to be cautious, but we're getting better.
If we controlled everything, then we could be much more definite about our commitments, but we try to do our best, yes.