Evidence of meeting #121 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pco.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Of the $37.5 million, how much is for the PM's residence?
Sylvie Godin Executive Director, Finance, Planning and Administration Directorate, Privy Council Office
Bonjour.
It's an authority that PCO has. It's under PMO's budget and it's not information that is disclosed. We disclosed the expense, but the budget is part of the overall budget of PCO.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
It shows program expenditures including the operations of his residence. You don't disclose that?
Okay, I will move on.
Concerning the infamous India trip, can you tell us how much that cost? What was the entire cost for staff, family, and everything?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
Mr. Chair, as you likely know, it is Global Affairs Canada that handles the expenses related to international trips and not the Privy Council Office. Global Affairs Canada publicly discloses those costs through their regular process. At this point I would not have—
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Is that including for family and personal staff who went along?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
That is correct.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
How do you interact with the National Capital Commission on needed renovations for, say, Harrington Lake? Do they decide? Do you have input on it?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
Our department works with the NCC if there are specific issues, but when it comes to the overall renovation, we have no part in that.
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
If I may just say, if we needed secure communications, for example, we would work with them to make sure that we can access and put in the proper equipment in working with them.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
On the two working groups that Ms. Ratansi, Mr. Jowhari, and I mentioned earlier—correct me if I'm wrong—you mentioned $974,000 for the LGBTQ2+, and we've spent $500,000 of it so far. The next $400,000 or $600,000, the rest of the year's budget will be spent in the same kind of percentage as you mentioned between staff, travel, and hospitality. Do you foresee that?
How much is budgeted for next year? How much do you expect next year, and what will be the breakdown of those costs do you expect?
Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, Social Development Policy, Privy Council Office
Those numbers are still being planned, Mr. Chair, so I wouldn't have an answer at this time.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
How did you come up with the total then if you haven't got it planned?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
Mr. Chair, if I could intervene on that particular question, we do have a budget for the overall—
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
How do you come up with a budget if you don't have a plan and don't know what the costs are going to be?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
The secretariat exists and will exist for multiple years, so as we outlined, we do know that we'll have about five and a half full-time equivalent employees, and so—
Conservative
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
—on that $974,000 that we mentioned from a budget perspective, about $600,000 of that is salary and the remainder is for a mix of non-salary costs.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
All right. What are the non-salary costs? Give us an idea.
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
Travel would be a portion of that, and this is where it's estimates versus what ends up happening.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Yes, that's fair. Obviously, you have some kind of an idea to come up with this number.
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Privy Council Office
Absolutely. There are interpretation and translation services that we require when we do some of these, and facilitation services that we may need, depending on the type of event.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Do you think, going forward, it will stay the same kind of ratio between travel and—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut it off there, Mr. McCauley, but you will have another opportunity in just a few moments.
We'll go to Madam Mendès, please, for five minutes.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you all for being here.
I would like for the record to say something, please: we do not have a first family in Canada. We have a Prime Minister's family.
I'm sorry, but this really gets to me.
Okay, I'll move on to the serious things. If I understand correctly, it's a sort of centre of expertise that you provide at PCO for Impact Canada. Is that what you're providing the government?