Evidence of meeting #48 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cgsb.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:40 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
We've dealt with, I think, over half of them.
11:40 a.m.
Director, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
I think I can answer your question.
Back about four or five years ago we had 856 standards that were over five years old. As of April 15, we have 162, so that means we've addressed 81%—
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
11:40 a.m.
Director, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
The ones that are left will probably take between one and two years to be completed, but we are working on all of them.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
You said you had 4,000 volunteers. Do you have an idea of the time they dedicate to this, not individually but in total?
11:40 a.m.
Director, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
No. We've never done that analysis on a case-by-case basis. We recently did an analysis of the petroleum committee, because we were—
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
I would suggest that you might want to, because my next question would have been—and it's a question that you should be able to answer, and perhaps even promote—what is the value of the time that these 4,000 volunteers give?
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
Sorry. It's an excellent question. You're absolutely right, and we will take that on as a recommendation and do that work. But I have to tell you, you're absolutely right. There's no way any of these standards-writing bodies could do this work if they had to pay. These are all significant contributions by Canadians.
May 7th, 2015 / 11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Also it's something we value in all fields of endeavour in Canada.
You said there were eight, and this is something that interests me. I think there are more than eight.
One I mentioned at the last meeting was Accreditation Canada/Agrément Canada, which basically does a tremendous job both domestically and internationally in terms of hospitals and the processes and practices in hospitals.
So am I right to believe that there are more than eight?
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
Yes. Let me try to answer that. Again, it's complex.
There are only eight organizations accredited by the Standards Council of Canada as Canadian standards development organizations. That's the definition, but there are other institutions that also go out in an industry-specific area and set—
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
I'm sure there are hundreds.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Thank you.
Beyond the fact that 33 employees would lose their jobs and there would be an impact on their families, what would be the impact of cancelling CGSB?
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
I don't know if we have a list, but a significant number of our standards are in regulations, so we'd have to look at how that would impact the capacity of that regulation to be maintained in Canada. That would have direct impact there.
Obviously, in terms of those who would make use of these standards.... The Government of Canada, for example, references CGSB standards in its procurement. If those standards were not managed by us, then who would manage them? They'd have to find somebody else to do it.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Do you have any idea of the amount of taxpayers' money that is spent on procurement by the Government of Canada on an annual basis?
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
I do. Public Works spends between $13 billion and $16 billion on procurement on an annual basis.
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
It's $3 million but $2.1 million is recuperated through fees.
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
It's less than $1 million; it's $900,000.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
So there's a cost of $1 million to regulate and standardize $16 billion of purchases?
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
Well, I'll be very frank you. Not everything the government buys needs a CGSB standard, but there are some things that do.
I know at one point in CGSB we tried to estimate the impact of CGSB standards on government procurement, and it was just over $1 billion in about 1989. That's how old I am.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
So the budget, if it were to be cancelled, would be less than a fraction of 1%.
11:45 a.m.
Director General, Acquisitions Branch, PWGSC, Canadian General Standards Board
Yes.