Government Operations Committee on March 10th, 2015

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Mr. Byrne, do you have a closing comment?

[Gerry Byrne, Liberal, Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL]

I do, Mr. Chair. On a point of order that may have been raised earlier, I was wondering if the minister just made an undertaking that he would answer the four questions related to the Financial Administration Act, to the statutory requirements that are imposed upon federal crown corporations, to the Treasury Board's policy expectations with regard to the approval of corporate plans, and to Marine Atlantic's performance in meeting those Treasury Board policy expectations, and any explanations that the Treasury Board may want to provide in that regard.

I think I may have heard the President of the Treasury Board actually commit to that particular—

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Perhaps we had better ask the minister.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

We'll take it under advisement and get back to you.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Fair enough.

You've used your time well, Mr. Byrne.

I'm going to suspend the meeting briefly while we excuse the minister.

Thank you, Minister, for being with us today.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

We'll reconvene the meeting and our examination of supplementary estimates (C) and the main estimates.

The minister is no longer with us, but we do welcome Mr. Brian Pagan.

You'll be leading your team for the next hour, Mr. Pagan. Is that what I'm to understand?

[Brian Pagan]

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Joining me today is Marcia Santiago, executive director of expenditure operations.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Ms. Santiago, it's nice to see you again.

[Brian Pagan]

Also with us is Renée Lafontaine, chief financial officer for the Treasury Board Secretariat.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Hello, Ms. Lafontaine.

[Brian Pagan]

With her is her deputy, Grace Chenette, deputy chief financial officer.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

It's nice to see you. Welcome.

Thank you very much. Do you have any opening remarks or would you like to allow us to proceed with questions?

[Brian Pagan]

Very briefly, Mr. Chair, just by way of context and to pick up on some of the items from the last round, there was a great deal of interest in the issue of the budget and sunsetting, and the order in which information is presented, supporting, again, your point about the primacy of parliamentary control and approval of the estimates documents.

We are presenting information to you that has been approved by the Treasury Board based on an available source of funds, as confirmed by the budget. Generally, that source of funds is through the budget process. We have no control of or indication as to when that budget will be, but we do have regular intervals, regular opportunities, to update Parliament on the spending plans of departments based on the sources of funds that are provided through that budget process.

What we are presenting today in supplementary estimates (C) are all those authorities to close out fiscal year 2014-15 and the approved authorities to begin fiscal year 2015-16. We will update Parliament regularly through subsequent supplementary estimates as that situation changes with the budget and the economic update.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Very good, Mr. Pagan. Thank you very much.

We're going to begin with a new round of questioning, then, with Mr. Ravignat for the NDP, for five minutes.

Mathieu, please.

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to all of you for being here. Some of you I've seen before, but some of you are new, so welcome to the committee.

I want to talk about vote 20c, wherein the Treasury Board Secretariat is requesting $49.9 million for “changes approved under the Public Service Health Care Plan”. I want to understand what the changes are specifically. What has been implemented and why the $49.9 million?

[Brian Pagan]

The member is speaking of the supplementary estimates (C).

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

That's right. It's vote 20c, if that helps.

[Brian Pagan]

Vote 20 is a central vote administered by the Treasury Board Secretariat on behalf of the Public Service Commission of Canada. In particular, vote 20 is in respect of pension and benefit programs for public service and Canadian Forces members. In particular, the request for $196.2 million in supplementary estimates (C) is to address a funding shortfall under the service income security insurance plan. I believe the minister spoke to this. It is the plan for support to Canadian Forces members who have been medically released from the forces.

There are two drivers on that demand: first, the number of soldiers as a result of recent missions, in particular in Afghanistan; and second, an economic factor. This is a funded plan. Future benefits are dependent on interest rates. As interest rates decline, the cost of sustaining that future obligation increases and that contributes to part of the increase.

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Do we have a sense of numbers here? How many employees will benefit from the measures?

[Brian Pagan]

Sorry, the actual number of soldiers...?

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Yes.

[Brian Pagan]

Yes, I would have that for you.

I just want to make clear that vote 20 is an amalgam of a number of different benefit plans available to Canadian Forces. I was just speaking to the program known as SISIP, the service income security insurance plan. There is an additional amount required in vote 20c, and that is for, as per your question, the recent benefit changes under the health care plan.

That particular item is driven by a budget 2014 decision to move to equal cost-sharing, 50-50 in terms of the contribution ratio for the government and pensioners. As part of that agreement, there was some adjustment to the benefits provided. For instance, laser eye surgery, elective eye surgery, is now funded through this program.

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Presumably the $49.9 million that touches the public service health care plan.... That was the one I was interested in, not the one touching the soldiers, though I may come back to that one. Is it related to new types of benefits—you just mentioned laser eye—or is it related to administering the changes? Is there an amount of that $49.9 million going into implementing the changes as well?

[Brian Pagan]

No. This increase is driven by changes to the benefit plan, such as elective eye surgery, aerotherapeutics devices—sleep apnea support—psychological services to account for—

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

That's helpful. As long as I know it's related to benefits....

The budget of the Canada School of Public Service has been cut by $13.6 million, or 17.1% of its budget.

Could you provide further details as to the programs specifically affected by these cuts, and explain why? You will understand that in the national capital region, this is quite important.