Government Operations Committee on May 3rd, 2016

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Welcome to the 10th meeting of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.

We have witnesses today from the Privy Council Office, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, and the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat. We will have opening comments from each of the three agencies and then go into our usual rounds of questions.

I would point out to members of the committee that I have reserved about 10 minutes at the end of the committee to go in camera and start to discuss committee business, primarily the report of the subcommittee on agenda for our future meetings. If we can proceed as quickly as possible, my understanding, ladies and gentlemen, is that each of the three agencies before us has a few brief comments to make.

It is my understanding, Mr. Lucas, that you will start. So please, sir, would you give us your comments and also introduce the officials who may be with you today.

[Stephen Lucas, Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, Plans and Consultations and Intergovernmental Affairs, Privy Council Office]

Thank you, and good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting us to speak with you today.

With me is Karen Cahill, executive director of finance and corporate planning, and deputy chief financial officer, corporate services, of the Privy Council Office.

I am pleased to be here today and to have the opportunity to answer your questions regarding the 2016-17 main estimates and PCO's 2016-17 report on plans and priorities.

To begin, I would like to provide some information about each of these documents.

PCO is seeking $120.7 million in the 2016-17 main estimates. This is an overall increase of $1.9 million from the amount PCO sought in its 2015-16 main estimates, which totalled $118.8 million. Here are a few examples of why there is an increase in PCO's main estimates for this year.

There are activities related to the continuation and advancement of the border implementation team in support of Canada/U.S. border-related activities; activities related to the support for the Prime Minister's official web presence, including social media accounts; and activities related to the continued implementation of Canada's migrant smuggling prevention program.

These increases are partially offset by a decrease in funding for the implementation of various government-wide initiatives, including the continued consolidation of pay services, the implementation of the Canada School of Public Services' new business model, and the 2016 population census.

I will now provide a summary of PCO's report on plans and priorities for fiscal year 2016-17.

It should be noted first of all that PCO's strategic result is to support and implement the government's program and decisions, and to provide support for the operation of institutions. In this regard, PCO will continue to play a lead coordination and advisory role to ensure that the government meets the objectives set out in its mandate.

PCO plans to meet the strategic outcome by focusing on four key organizational priorities during the year.

PCO's first priority is to support the Prime Minister and portfolio ministers in exercising their responsibilities and implementing government policies by providing professional, non-partisan advice and support on the government's policy, legislative, and government administration priorities, including on the new Governor in Council and Senate appointment process.

PCO's second priority is to support the deliberations of cabinet and its committees on key policy initiatives, to coordinate policy planning, and to provide non-partisan advice to help the government implement its agenda as outlined in the ministerial mandate letters and the Speech from the Throne.

PCO's third priority is to facilitate the management of open, transparent and responsible government, which supports the Clerk of the Privy Council as the head of Canada's public service. PCO will contribute to sound public administration by supporting the delivery of enhanced services that better meet the needs of Canadians, and also improving public service productivity. The department will continue to support the commitment of the clerk and the deputy clerk to an efficient, modern, and highly effective public service.

Finally, PCO's fourth priority is to strengthen the organization's internal management practices. This priority fosters rigorous internal management practices, which enables PCO to fulfill its mandate with excellence.

PCO will achieve this through continued compliance with Government of Canada information priorities and its modernization efforts, including digital record keeping, continuing to adopt the email transformation initiative, and improving its IT security posture.

To ensure that the department has the necessary resources to effectively support the government's program, to strengthen security, and to make the investments needed to renew the life cycle of systems and buildings, new funding is provided to the Privy Council Office in budget 2016, specifically, up to $49 million in 2016-17, and up to $50 million in 2017-18.

The funding for the current year is obtained through the supplementary estimates process. That means that we will certainly come before the committee again to discuss in greater detail the changes that PCO will implement.

Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to explain the initiatives related to PCO's 2016-17 main estimates and report on plans and priorities.

We'd be pleased to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lucas.

Now we'll go to Ms. Fox, representing the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Ms. Fox, could you please introduce the officials who are with you and then give us your opening comments, please?

[Kathy Fox, Chair, Transportation Safety Board of Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to appear today.

I bring with me two colleagues who offer a wealth of experience. Mr. Jean Laporte is our chief operating officer. He's been with us since our inception in 1990 and possesses a deep understanding of our mandate and the processes we follow. Madam Chantal Lemyre is our director general of corporate services and chief financial officer. She is well placed to provide greater context and information about the financial and corporate details of our work.

I'd like to take just a moment to tell you about who we are and what we do. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, or TSB, was created in 1990 by the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act. Our mandate and our sole purpose is to advance transportation safety in the air, rail, marine, and pipeline modes of transportation that are under federal jurisdiction. We do this by conducting independent investigations, identifying safety deficiencies, analyzing causes and contributing factors, making recommendations, and publishing our reports. Put simply, when something goes wrong, we investigate to find out not just what happened, but why. Then we make public what we've learned so that those best placed to take action—industry and regulators—can do so.

It's also important to clarify what the TSB does not do. We are neither regulator nor tribunal. We do not assign fault, nor do we determine civil or criminal liability. We do not conduct investigations or audits. Those functions are left to the regulators and other organizations. Instead, we're independent, operating at arm's length from other government departments and agencies. This lets us be impartial, free from any real or perceived external influence. As such, we do not report to Transport Canada or to the Minister of Transport, but rather directly to Parliament through the leader of the government in the House of Commons.

That is why the TSB falls under this committee's mandate as regards its main estimates and its report on plans and priorities.

This past March, we completed our 25th year of advancing safety across Canada. That's thousands of investigations and countless lessons learned. A lot has changed over that time.

The world has become increasingly connected, new technologies and new tools have emerged, and the demand for information is more pressing than ever.

Last year, for example, we received notification of approximately 3,700 transportation occurrences from coast to coast to coast. We opened 41 new investigations, and we received over 1,400 requests for information from the media—reporters, editors, TV producers—and as you can imagine, they all want to know everything right away.

To deal with all of this change and the evolving expectations of Canadians, we've developed a new five-year strategic plan. This plan places a priority on modernizing much of the way we work—our processes, our tools, our training and our products, even the way we communicate—while continuing to deliver on our day-to-day mandate. But there are challenges and risks ahead. Chief among them is the need to constantly balance our workload against available resources. That's because successive budgetary freezes and cuts, as well as the implementation of new government-wide systems and initiatives, have had a cumulative impact that has reduced our flexibility.

Put another way, we're a small organization whose management team works hard to ensure good planning and oversight on an ongoing basis so that we can deliver on our mandate as efficiently as possible with limited resources. That really is the ultimate bottom line, because there's not a single person in this country whose life is not impacted by transportation safety. No matter where things go wrong—on our waterways, along our pipelines, on our railways, or in the skies—Canadians need to have confidence that we will find the answers.

They have to know that, even if things are changing and we have to adapt to new realities, we can continue our work without compromise in order to make Canada's transportation network as safe as possible.

Again, in closing, thank you for inviting us to be here today.

We're happy to answer any questions you may have. Merci.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much, Ms. Fox.

Now, representing the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat, we'll have comments from Monsieur McArdle.

[André McArdle, Secretary, Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

With me is Mr. Brian Berry, who is the assistant secretary and chief financial officer.

We welcome the opportunity to appear before this standing committee. Because of the rather unique nature of the Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat, with your permission, I would like to give the members of this committee a brief description of who we are and what we do.

The Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat was created pursuant to a first ministers' conference, in May 1973. It was then made a department for the purposes of the Financial Administration Act, by an order in council dated November 29, 1973.

We report to Parliament through the president of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.

Although the secretariat is a federal department, in practice it is an intergovernmental agency whose operational budget is co-funded by the provinces. Our full-time employees consist of federal, provincial, and territorial public servants. The secretariat reports to all governments annually.

The secretariat is a single-program agency whose mandate is to serve federal, provincial, and territorial governments in the planning and conduct of senior level intergovernmental meetings. The organization's primary objective is to relieve federal, provincial, and territorial clients of the numerous administrative and technical tasks associated with the planning and conduct of such conferences. This enables government departments to concentrate on the substantive issues.

These meetings are a key instrument for consultation and negotiation among governments, and are a critical component of the workings of the Canadian federation.

The agency serves conferences in virtually every sector of intergovernmental activity, and its services are available across Canada.

I would also add that the Secretariat is responsible for a unique collection of intergovernmental documents from all the meetings it has helped organize for over 40 years.

Its value as a unique archive has been recognized by Library and Archives Canada.

It is important to note that the secretariat does not convene conferences. We respond to decisions taken by governments to meet on national or specific issues, as we were asked to do with respect to the recent first ministers' meeting which was held in Vancouver in early March.

Decisions concerning the location of such meetings, their frequency in a given year, their timing, and their duration are all factors beyond our control. These factors, however, have a direct impact on our level of expenditures for every fiscal year.

The secretariat served 114 conferences in 2015-16, of which 40 were teleconferences and two were by video.

The Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat 2016-17 budget of just under $6 million remains approximately the same as in the previous year.

This funding will allow the secretariat to address the following priorities: enhance and expand strategic partnerships; continue to ensure a client-focused, responsive service delivery model, in step with rapidly evolving technologies, for example; maintain the effective and efficient use of resources; and cultivate a continuous learning environment for our staff.

The agency is very much in line with the transformation agenda of Blueprint 2020. We are proactive in evaluating and implementing efficient and innovative conference solutions that help contain or reduce costs.

The Secretariat continues to transform its back office by consolidating human resources and financial systems to increase efficiencies.

Security is a priority for the Secretariat, both physical security and with regard to information technology. It is an integral part of the organization's strategic frameworks, its daily activities, and the conduct of its employees.

In closing, the agency, by skilfully executing the logistical planning and delivery of senior-level intergovernmental meetings across Canada, not only relieves governments of an administrative process burden, but more importantly, allows them to greatly benefit from significant cost efficiencies and economies of scale. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much, Monsieur McArdle.

Now we'll go to our regular line of questioning. We will begin with the Liberal Party of Canada, and Madam Ratansi, please.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Lucas, I understand from your presentation that the PCO is seeking a $1.9 million appropriation for 2016-17. When we were reviewing the supplementary estimates, PCO had requested $0.6 million to modernize the Prime Minister's digital presence. Could you give me an idea of what changes are being made to modernize the Prime Minister's digital presence, and how will this benefit Canadians?

[Stephen Lucas]

The Privy Council Office is investing in technology and people to support the ability of the Prime Minister through his official Government of Canada website and social media accounts such as Twitter or YouTube. Our purpose is to provide information to Canadians 365 days a year, on a 24-7 basis, using innovative tools such as interactive approaches, and up-to-date and more rich digital content videos, and other means of conveying important information on government programs, services, and major events.

In addition, the support enables us to have, behind the interface, a web content management system that allows the curating of, and access to, these materials for Canadians on an ongoing basis. In addition, because it's an official Government of Canada website, it needs to respect the policies of the Government of Canada, including with respect to official languages and accessibility. It's to that end that these investments are helping provide information on an around-the-clock, year-round basis to Canadians.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

In your presentation, you mentioned that this increase also relates to activities related to the continued implementation of Canada's migrant smuggling prevention strategy. You've asked for $1.0 million in support of this strategy. What has been done so far to implement Canada's migrant smuggling prevention strategy?

[Stephen Lucas]

The strategy on human struggling and illegal migration was established in 2010 and involves a number of departments, including Global Affairs Canada; the RCMP; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; and CSIS. PCO plays a coordination role. With the investment in 2016-17 of $0.3 million, that coordination will support the activities of these other agencies to identify overseas points of embarkation, or issues pertaining to illegal migration or human smuggling, and interdict them overseas. Indeed, over the past number of years, there have not been any such landings in Canada. In the coming year, there will be an assessment of the overall program.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Is this strategy fully implemented, and are there any updates on recent positive outcomes?

[Stephen Lucas]

I think the performance metric for this is the number of potential embarkations outside Canada of smuggled or illegal migrants into the country by criminals that are blocked before leaving those overseas destinations. To that end, it has been and continues to be successful.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

What were some of the countries that this smuggling comes from?

[Stephen Lucas]

I don't have that specific information. Canadian officials are working with their counterparts in a number of regions around the world, including Southeast Asia, West Africa, and Europe, to address these concerns.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

I looked at the main estimates between 2015-16 and 2016-17 and saw that there is a decrease in spending for the advice and support to the Prime Minister and portfolio ministers. Can you explain this decrease and what is the outcome of it?

[Stephen Lucas]

I'll turn to my colleague, Karen Cahill, for that one.

[Karen Cahill, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office]

You said there was a decrease in the advice and support?

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Yes, for advice and support to the Prime Minister and portfolio ministers.

[Karen Cahill]

In our main estimates?

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Yes, between the two years.

[Stephen Lucas]

We may have to get back to the member on that question.

[Karen Cahill]

We actually have additional funding that we are requesting. It's actually an increase that we asked for, but we can—

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

I did my math. It is a reduction from $13.921 million to $13.876 million.

[Karen Cahill]

We can get back to you on this.