Government Operations Committee on May 3rd, 2016

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

Okay fine, that's not a problem.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

You have about a minute left.

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

I have one very quick question then. According to the 2016-17 report on plans and priorities, PCO has the responsibility to implement new staffing framework. What are some of the main changes that have been made, or challenges you have faced? It's the appointment policy and the appointment delegation and accountability instrument.

[Karen Cahill]

Just like any other department, as of April 1, PCO has implemented the new policy on staffing or the new staffing framework. The main change since the older policy is that before, we had five policies. Now we have one policy. The prior directive, or the prior framework, was more on a rule-based system whereas this new framework is more tasked on a value-based system. There are clear expectations on managing the priority entitlement and implement equity requirements, as in the past the expectations were not as clear as they are now. The role of the human resources advisor is more strategic. In the past, the HR advisors were applying rules to staffing actions, and we are assessed on a cycle of five years. Every five years the department will be assessed on how they have implemented the framework and what action resulted from the framework. It allowed us to review our delegation instrument to provide our manager with more staffing flexibility.

Now, in terms of the challenges facing us, I must—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Madam Cahill, if you could please wrap up, we are seriously over time. We might be able to get back to this for the continuation of your answer, but I would suggest that we move on to Mr. Blaney, just in essence of trying to keep our timetable. Thank you.

Mr. Blaney.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to welcome the three witnesses representing federal agencies and thank them for appearing before us today.

First, I would note that some aspects of the request seem very worthwhile, especially improving the situation at the border with our American partners and the strategy to limit illegal immigration.

On the other hand, I was surprised by the work that Treasury Board must do and the additional funding requested for the Prime Minister's media presence.

My first question is for Mr. Lucas.

Since you represent the Privy Council Office, could you tell us the size of the budget, within this funding envelope, that is earmarked for the Prime Minister's Office?

[Stephen Lucas]

The budget for the Prime Minister's Office is allocated from our funding for the current fiscal year. These expenditures will appear in the public accounts at the end of the year.

[Karen Cahill]

That's right.

Each year, the Privy Council Office gives the PMO a notional budget, as Mr. Lucas said. This budget has not changed for several years. It is part of the budgets allocated to the Privy Council Office. As is the case for ministers' offices, the expenses incurred by the PMO will be available to you once we have the public accounts in the fall.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Could you tell us right now what the PMO's budget is?

For this fiscal year, because I understand that this is within the ask today, and I would like to know how much it is.

[Karen Cahill]

The PMO's budget is $10.6 million. It has not changed for a number of years and we do not anticipate any change in the coming years.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

It will change though since you have requested an additional $0.6 million to hire two people. Is this additional amount part of the $10.6 million?

[Stephen Lucas]

These resources are allocated to PCO for our working group on communications and consultations.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

They will be dedicated to the Prime Minister, however.

[Stephen Lucas]

They will be dedicated to the Prime Minister of Canada's official website and other social media.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

I imagine that keeps you very busy since they say our Prime Minister has among the highest level of media exposure in the world. Yesterday, we saw him doing push-ups. One day he is at a boxing club, the next day he makes some other appearance.

The Privy Council Office must provide important advice to the Prime Minister on various issues. There are people in Alberta who are losing their jobs. In my riding of Sainte-Claire, a company shut its doors last week. We have even seen a hostage-taking where Canadians were the victims of atrocities committed by terrorists.

My question pertains to these additional resources. You are requesting an additional $0.6 million to increase your web presence. It seems the media are having a field day with all these appearances.

Can you describe the work of these two additional resources assigned to promoting the Prime Minister's activities on the Internet? It must be said that these activities are taxpayer-funded.

[Stephen Lucas]

As I said, these resources are assigned to the support, both daily and annual, of the Prime Minister of Canada's official website and other social media tools.

The investment enables not only utilization of these tools with an increasing volume—the volume has more than doubled over the past number of years in terms of the utilization of digital media—but it also allows for the development of a web content management system. Thus it allows Canadians to access material from previous times and access materials, as technology evolves, through interactive means.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

On a personal note, that would certainly appreciate more investment and advice to the Prime Minister on the issue I've just touched on. There are Canadians who have been slaughtered by terrorists. There are jobs that are being lost, whether in Alberta or in my own riding, in regard to protectionist measures that have been put in place. We understand you are there to serve the Prime Minister and adjust to the priorities. I have no doubt about the professionalism of the work you are providing.

I would now like to turn to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Ms. Fox, could we please have an update on the investigations you conducted at Lac-Mégantic? What kind of recommendations do you make? Do you anticipate any further action in relation to the Lac-Mégantic disaster?

[Kathy Fox]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Madam Fox, if I may, this is a very serious topic and you want to give a very comprehensive answer but we do have a shortage of time, so if you could try to make your answer as succinct as possible, I would certainly appreciate that.

[Kathy Fox]

Yes, Mr. Chair.

We completed our investigation into the accident at Lac-Mégantic in August 2014. Further to our investigation, we made five recommendations, one of which the government has acted on. There are four more recommendations, one relating to the tank cars used to transport oil and petroleum, as well as the need for risk analysis when rail companies transport oil.

Two further recommendations pertain to Transport Canada's oversight and the need to prevent runaway trains. The TSB has evaluated Transport Canada's response. In fact, we re-evaluated it one year after the measures had been taken. These measures are ongoing and we will continue to verify the measures taken by the government until the recommendations are fully implemented.

There are other recommendations, including the training of regional rail company employees, about which we had expressed concerns. We will also continue to verify the measures taken by the government in this regard.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you.

Mr. Weir, please, for seven minutes.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

We haven't had any questions for the Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat.

It seems that we've moved from having a federal government that was not particularly interested in meeting with the provinces to having a federal government that has a very ambitious agenda of intergovernmental meetings. I'm struck by the fact that the budget of your organization seems to be about $6 million every year. I'm wondering how you account for that stability.

[André McArdle]

Thank you for the question.

The reason for this is that before 2004 we used to go almost regularly to Treasury Board to obtain supplementary estimates, because we never had enough money to be able to serve all the conferences that were coming our way, so the decision was taken to finance us at a level that would permit us to do 100 face-to-face conferences.

If there is a surplus, that really goes to the consolidated revenue fund. It has actually saved us a lot of bureaucratic processes, because the money is there, and at the end of the year we lapse, and then it goes into the consolidated revenue fund.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Not to put words in your mouth, but the idea might be that the organization is erring on the side of asking for more money than it might actually spend, knowing that the remainder can be put back into the fiscal framework.