Government Operations Committee on Nov. 28th, 2017

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

It sounds like the whole of government is letting you down.

[Marie Lemay]

We're in a better position than we were last year in terms of capacity.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Very quickly, we asked a question about what was almost like an MP hotline, and Mr. Weir followed up on it. I heard Ms. Qualtrough say it would take two weeks, but it sounded like it was a different answer for Mr. Weir. Again, this is a non-partisan issue for all of the MPs. Can you speak to that two weeks?

[Marie Lemay]

What I understood the minister to say was that we would get back to you in two weeks as to what the process would be.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay, we can expect that. Wonderful. I think if we can get at least that much out of this meeting, it will have been a huge success for our constituents, so thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much, Mr. McCauley.

Colleagues, I'm going to excuse the witnesses, but I would ask all of you to please remain at the table. We will not go in camera, but I want to deal with the supplementary estimates (B) very quickly if we can.

Madam Lemay, Mr. Parker, Mr. Linklater, Mr. Muldoon, Madam Campbell, Madam Paquet, Mr. Duplantie, thank you so much.

Colleagues, could I ask you to come back to the table? Mr. McCauley, Mr. Weir....

Colleagues, if you recall the last time we dealt with supplementary estimates (B) last year, I followed the same process I'm going to recommend to you now, and I will ask this. Do I have the unanimous consent of the committee to call all of the votes of supplementary estimates (B) 2017-18 together?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

We will now have the votes.

CANADIAN TRANSPORTATION ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION AND SAFETY BOARD

Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$1,538,000

(Vote 1b agreed to)

PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE

Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$34,195,262

(Vote 1b agreed to)

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$1

(Vote 1b agreed to)

SHARED SERVICES CANADA

Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$14,704,740

Vote 5b—Capital expenditures..........$1

(Votes1b and 5b agreed to)

TREASURY BOARD SECRETARIAT

Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$30,671,729

Vote 15b—Compensation adjustments..........$654,565,472

Vote 20b—Public Service Insurance..........$253,209,974

(Votes 1b, 15b, and 20b agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Shall the chair report the supplementary estimates (B) 2017-18 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you. It shall be done.

Is there anything else for the benefit of the committee?

Go ahead, Ms. Ratansi.

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

Is the Phoenix study going to be done here or are we going to consolidate the study or let public accounts do it, because the department officials were before public accounts this morning? I don't know what the streamlining process is. Can we take their witness summary and incorporate it into our report?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

We as a committee, of course, as you know, Madam Ratansi, have the ability to be the master of our own agenda. We can determine that. If you wish, I can certainly have a conversation with my counterpart, the chair of public accounts, and report back to the committee, and then we can make the final determination.

Raphaëlle has just informed me that public accounts will prepare a report. They are definitely going ahead with that. It would be up to us to determine whether we wish to do so.

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

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

I'll have a conversation with Kevin Sorenson and report back.

Thank you all.

The meeting is adjourned.