Government Operations Committee on Nov. 20th, 2012

[Alister Smith]

They're cost-shared.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

—they're not 100% dollar-for-dollar back?

[Alister Smith]

No, these are cost-shared.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I didn't know. That's why I asked the question.

In response to Mr. McCallum's question—and this is the first meeting we've had on this particular item—I've read the plans and priorities document that came out, and I've also read the performance review. One's 25 pages and one's 62, one's more onerous than the other.

I have two questions. To his point, could you not use your plans and priorities piece to do a more descriptive aspect of different programs—subprograms, as he calls them—on what your plans are for the year?

[Alister Smith]

Well, in the past, we had been criticized for having had too much information in our RPPs. They were long and woolly and were hard to... They didn't have enough concrete information. Over a period of time, we tried to provide a much more concise document, with concrete information on program activities and all the rest of it in the documents.

It's a matter of what parliamentarians really want and find most useful.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay, I appreciate that.

[Alister Smith]

We could provide more description or less, as you require.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Right.

I have one other technical question, then. From your plans and priorities for this year, you have the planning summary table, you have forecast spending, and then planned spending for the next three years in advance—2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15. On the summary, under “Government-wide Funds and Public Service Employer Payments”, it's $4.1 billion—that's the number—for 2011-12, and then this year, 2012-13, it goes to $5.4 billion.

Why is there such a change? Do we know?

[Alister Smith]

This will be the central votes. It typically is not Treasury Board as a department; it's central votes.

[Bill Matthews]

Mr. Chair, I think members will remember we spent a great deal of time at previous meetings talking about severance to employees because of the—

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay, yes.

[Bill Matthews]

—old entitlement whereby employees built up one week of severance based—

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So that's where that money is.

[Bill Matthews]

—upon the year they worked, so that is funded from a central vote.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Perfect answer. Thank you very much. I understand that.

Then when I look at your performance review here, and then I look at the accounts for that year, because the performance review is for the year past, can I find these numbers that are in this document in this other document, or do they not relate?

[Bill Matthews]

Where you're dealing with actual expenditures that you'll see in a departmental performance report, if it's against authorities, you would look to Public Accounts of Canada, volume II. It's listed department by department, and you should see the actual expenditures match against what's in the—

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I should be able to find those numbers in this document also in this other document?

[Bill Matthews]

Yes.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I'll keep working on it, then. Thanks very much.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

You might want to pack a lunch if you want to connect those dots.

That concludes our second round of questioning.

I'd like to ask one question from the chair, and it's also from the report on plans and priorities for 2012-13. On the open government initiative, your report says:

The Secretariat will advance the Open Government initiative by developing and implementing an action plan that will enhance Canadians’ access to government data and information, and support Canada’s participation in the international Open Government Partnership.

How much of your $83 million proposed spending is dedicated to the open government initiative, and what's the status of the much-ballyhooed open government plan to get it all up on the website just like the Americans have done?

[Christine Walker]

The open government plan is on the Treasury Board website. To date we have spent roughly $2 million on open government within the Treasury Board and we are absorbing that within our reference level.

There have been a number of initiatives on open government, and as I said, our action plan is posted on the Treasury Board website.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Could the general public find the information to questions put to you today on that open government website? Maybe John's questions, the detail he was seeking that you maybe used to put in your reports—is that going online so the general public can get answers to those questions?

[Alister Smith]

There is a great deal of information on open government on our website, information on the action plan and on our commitments.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

It's on the action plan. Generally all government finances are now the economic action plan. Is that right?