Government Operations Committee on Nov. 20th, 2014

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Have you provided for any other out-of-court settlements for matters that are presently before the courts?

[Bill Matthews]

There are many items before the courts. Actually, a very popular thing to do is to sue the government. Am I aware of any, at this moment, that will be coming back to you in supplementary estimates (C)? No, I'm not. That being said, there are many lawsuits in play.

One thing I would maybe highlight for the member is that in volume III of the Public Accounts they actually publish claims against the crown. It's actual payments that are made out for all the settlements. You can get them by department. It's after the fact but if it's an area of interest. You can find it. In the current year of 2014-15, you would see the White case show up as claims made against the crown for payments. It's a good way to track the settlements.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

The Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada, serving 11 organizations, was supposed to be up and running on November 3, 2014.

Is it up and running?

[Bill Matthews]

The organization is now part of our supplementary estimates (B). In terms of is the organization actually up and running and providing these services yet, I'm not certain.

[Marcia Santiago]

The services are continuing in the organizations that were originally providing them. I understand that the transition is going to be slow, but it's expected to be done by the end of the fiscal year because, as Mr. Matthews said, we are establishing the vote for the new organization in supplementary estimates (B). The order in council only came out a few weeks ago, so I'd imagine there will be a lot more work done between now and the end of the fiscal year.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

The supplementary estimates show $1 for that office. Is that normal? Where does it get its money from?

[Bill Matthews]

It's normal if we have to change the vote wording of something or add a new vote, things like that, but there's no actual money required. We can't put zero dollars. It's in the rules of the estimates that to basically make it into the appropriation act, we need a one dollar amount. So if we're changing the wording of a vote, we will use one dollar just to effect that change.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, NDP, Pierre-Luc Dusseault]

You have one minute and 10 seconds.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Very good.

I would now like to bring up another matter with you, the F-35s.

Could you tell us which independent expert has been hired to provide impartial advice to the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat's decision-making?

[Bill Matthews]

I don't recall what was the firm involved. That's a better question for National Defence to answer because I'm not too close to that process.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

In that case, Ms. Santiago, could you find us the cost, the kind of expertise this expert has, and what he will be paid, so that we can find out how much this has cost us?

[Bill Matthews]

Is this a question about an independent third party in terms of the review that was done for the F-35 and you're curious about the amount of the contract? I just want to make sure I have the question correct. Is it the name of the firm and the amount of the value of the contract?

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I would like to know what expertise the firm has, the salary that has been paid, and the cost of the contract.

[Bill Matthews]

I can certainly find out the value of the contract and the name of the firm. The actual questions around why they were chosen I think are probably better answered by DND, but I'll get the first two for sure.

[The Chair, NDP, Pierre-Luc Dusseault]

Thank you, Mrs. Day. Your time is up.

Mr. Hillyer, the floor is yours, for five minutes.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

On page 10 of your slides, it talks about the incentive for provinces to eliminate taxes on capital. I assume that means that if the provinces do eliminate taxes on capital, they get the funding.

Do they get some funding if they only reduce taxes on capital, or do you know?

[Bill Matthews]

My understanding is that the arrangement with the government is that if they eliminate taxes on capital, they receive compensation from the federal government. My understanding is that if they just reduce, there is nothing in play. It's eliminate. The amounts you're seeing here are for the Province of Quebec and for the Province of British Columbia to acknowledge their elimination of capital taxes. It's $95 million in total. Roughly $90 million went to the Province of Quebec and $4.9 million went to the Province of B.C. I'm going from memory here, but I think B.C. may have received something previously on this amount, but that's my memory.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Okay, so other provinces had already received something before these estimates.

[Bill Matthews]

Have they already received? Yes.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

On page 7, it talks about Parks Canada receiving money for improvement to highways, bridges, and dams.

Do you know if there were particular projects in mind, or if each particular part needs to apply if they have things in mind? What's up with that one?

[Bill Matthews]

From a parliamentary perspective, Parks Canada gets a bucket of funds that they can distribute across various projects. In putting together their request, Parks Canada looks at their current infrastructure, which items are in need of repair, and also what they think they can accomplish during the current fiscal year, because there are limits to what you can do. For this $57.6 million request, Parks Canada has an idea of what specific projects they will spend it on. Two I can mention for you are the Crowe Bay dam and the Glacier National Park highway, but there are many others.

That being said, I want to make it clear that if circumstances change and project A is not doable, they may have another project lined up to replace it, but the actual request of $57.6 million was based on a specific list.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

And it's a change from the original—

[Bill Matthews]

This is additional funding for this.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Okay.

I have another question. Your presentation talks about 63 organizations being covered under these estimates. Why are there some organizations that aren't listed?