Evidence of meeting #31 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was review.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
We'll be happy to get back to you on that, sir.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
Okay, and also on the internal services. Do you have any idea what those cuts were?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
I don't have that information with me today.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
Okay.
Turning to the 2010 strategic review, Mr. Bélisle, when you were here with us in November, you talked about Treasury Board crediting you with $900,000 in strategic review savings for efforts to reduce ministerial budgets. So you did that before the strategic review began, but you got credit for this earlier action. Is that correct?
Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Planning Division, Privy Council Office
Basically, since the ministers' offices had been reduced with a separate exercise that had been done prior to the strategic review, it would have been similar to a second cut to the ministers' budgets, so we were credited that amount for our strategic review.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
Okay.
My question here is similar to the other two. We would like to know which departments—$900,000 is a fair amount of money, so which ministers' offices received those cuts? How was the money distributed, and what was the nature of the things that were cut? If you're able to answer that now, that would be good. If not, could you provide a written answer at a later date?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
We're happy to follow up on it.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
Mr. Chair, since they can't have any answers for us today, I'm out of questions.
But thank you very much, and I look forward to receiving your written answers.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Mike Wallace
Welcome to the new scrutiny of estimates that we have around here, which I think is good.
Ron Cannan, you're next.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I just have a supplemental to the question of my colleague, Mr. Ravignat. As our chair mentioned, we're looking at other ways to improve the budget process in the future.
You mentioned that program activity is recorded, so would it be quite easy to present this in future estimate documents?
Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Planning Division, Privy Council Office
Yes, we could provide that information.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Where do you keep it right now? Is it posted anywhere?
Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Planning Division, Privy Council Office
No, at this point we keep that information internally. We provide that information when we do the departmental performance report at the end of the year. We report the information by program activity at that point.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
That would be helpful.
Mr. Wild, just going back to the Cohen Commission, I was on the fisheries committee at one time. When this was launched, you said it was policy and scientific, so it was very complex. I know my former colleague, Mr. Cummins, was involved in this.
Do you have any idea of the timeline? You're saying now it's going to be sufficient with the additional $1.4 million request. What's the anticipated completion, and what will be the total cost with this $1.4 million?
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Machinery of Government, Privy Council Office
I'll start with the cost first. The total budget is $26.4 million for the commission. Again, my understanding is that the commissioner expects to come within that budget.
In terms of timing, the commissioner is currently scheduled to provide his final report by June 30, 2012, but he has requested an extension, and that is something that is currently being evaluated by the government.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
What's your role? How do you ensure that the commissioner is respecting the budget?
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Machinery of Government, Privy Council Office
The main thing is that it's mostly through the front-end work at the setting up of the commission, in establishing the rules and procedures that the commissioner is going to follow in terms of contracting, etc., and working through exactly how the agreements are going to be struck with representatives around those who are being provided with support for having legal counsel represent them.
This particular commissioner, because he's had some experience with commissions, very early on took charge in some ways of how the representation of counsel was going to be reimbursed through the contribution program that's in place to support the commission. Basically, he has developed a whole series of schedules around using junior counsel for certain tasks, what rate they will be paid at versus the rate for senior counsel, and how many hours they will be reimbursed for. All of which has contributed to keeping some of the costs lower for this commission than perhaps some others we may have seen.
Part of it is just the fact that we have a person who has done a commission of inquiry before, understands how that process works, and has been managing it. I don't know if Mark wants to speak to anything as well, in that there is corporate services support to the commission provided by the Privy Council Office.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
In addition to what Mr. Wild has said, my branch provides a couple of types of services. First of all, we have a coordinator who sits to make sure that there is a cohesion to the activities and to the overall stewardship and comptrollership practices of the commission. Mark's people work closely with commission staff to make sure that all the laws, guidelines, and directives are followed. I spend some time every week signing off where the delegations require my level of authority. I can assure you that, as I go through all of the packages, the work is done very well. It's checked. There's a great deal of scrutiny brought to bear, even down to whether the meal allowances claimed are accurate or not.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
I have nothing against lawyers, but it's good to have the justice overseeing this. I understand there are 15 or 20 lawyers, and every organization has legal representation?
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Machinery of Government, Privy Council Office
There were 20 participants who were granted standing, and my understanding is that 15 of the 20 participants have been provided with financial assistance for their counsel. It's about 15 of the 20 participants.
Conservative
Ron Cannan Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
I have a quick question on the Privy Council.
In terms of keeping your office intact or leading by example, has your office grown or been reduced, and what are you doing in regard to focusing on the budgetary restraint?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
We are completing year one of the strategic review exercise, and about to start in year two. That has brought a very real focus to how we conduct ourselves financially.
Conservative
Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
So that looks at all areas of our spending. It was a comprehensive view of the department's spending just like that of all the other government departments. It was from internal services, such as the kind my branch provides to the activities required to support the cabinet system and the clerk in his role as the head of the public service. The whole review of the PCO was done to do that.
As I said, we're about to start on year two of implementing the strategic review decisions. You may know that this was a four-year exercise, and that the Privy Council was in the fourth year of how that was implemented across town. All the departments in town went through a strategic review and a certain amount in each of the four years. We were in the fourth and final year of that exercise together with some other fairly larger players, like DND and Public Works.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Mike Wallace
Thank you very much. That was an excellent answer.
Alexandre, five and a half minutes.